To Fight a God
by Rialga
Summary: After trying and failing to rid Souichiro of Sohaku and cleanse his demon exorcist powers, Souichiro ends up going and joining YOMI. Now the Juken Club has to go and fight alongside Kenichi and co. against YOMI, but can they go up against a god? Season 1: completed
1. Chapter 1

Ah, time to get this fic going. Had this idea going on in my head for quite a lot of time now and I'm glad that I'll be putting this into words now. Hopefully I'll be able to keep a decent update schedule for this along with my other fic.

Okay, time for the first and last time I'll be posting this: I do not own Tenjho Tenge nor do I own History's Strongest Disciple Kenichi. If I did I'd have made this crossover actually happen.

Now onto the story! Hope you enjoy.

To Fight a God

Masataka was in pain. A lot of pain. For a while now, he'd been fighting Souichiro, who has returned from his little around the world journey with more power than before. Masataka along with Maya and Aya had come up with a plan to try and purge Souichiro of his father Sohaku and of his demon exorcist powers. At first when Masataka poured some of his Ki into Souichiro, it seemed like it was working, but something seemed to go wrong.

Souichiro, in his mindscape, felt Masataka's power flow into him and felt that he was now strong enough to take down his bastard of a father, but the second he was about to move, he felt something. He didn't know how to describe the feeling, but something just felt off. At first Sohaku had seemed actually surprised by what they had planned, but as the mysterious feeling struck Souichiro, Sohaku slowly smiled.

"That bastard... he knew..." Souichiro thought, his eyes widened as this realization struck. He had been screwed once again by him.

After that, no one knew exactly what happened, not even Maya or Aya, who were in Souichiro's mindscape at the time to help him confront Sohaku. All they do know is that a moment after Souichiro received Masataka's Ki, an explosion of some kind rang out, blowing everyone away. Maya and Aya were also thrown out of Souichiro's mind at the same time. Souichiro collapsed as well onto the ground of what used to be the Juken Club building.

He got up right after though, his eyes wide still with what could only be described as shock. He looked around and saw the people that had come to watch his fight with Masataka all severely injured and unconscious. And then he saw Masataka himself, quite possibly the most injured person of all. In addition to the wounds that he had taken during the fight, the explosion just made them far worse.

Souichiro was about to help him and everyone else, but then something seemed to assault his mind. Or someone. He clutched his head and let out a roar that shook the area. "Damn it, he's still inside of me," he thought. Sohaku was still around and seemed intent on taking advantage of this moment to try and take over Souichiro once and for all.

He wasn't about to let that happen and fought of Sohaku's creeping influence as best as possible, fleeing the scene in the process. Eventually, Souichiro was successful in pushing back his father's control, but he was no fool. He knew that Sohaku isn't going to give up, if him saying he was going to start the 1000 year war meant anything. Even now, Souichiro could still feel him waiting for the right moment. "Can't let him win... need more power... to fight him," he thought.

Souichiro walked on, not really having a clue to where he was going, the only thing on his mind is getting stronger to resist Sohaku. "Need more... red feathers..." he concluded as that was really the only thing he could do at this point and so continued his seemingly blind journey. He didn't know how much time passed as he walked, nor did he care.

Instead, Souichiro just had to wonder something. How can he find more red feathers? He's already traveled all across the world seeking them out and now he had hundreds of abilities at his disposal. But despite that much, it still isn't enough to be rid of Sohaku. With so many abilities, Souichiro was now left thinking if there were even any red feathers left for him to track down.

He pondered this. The only one left that he could think of is Aya, but for some reason, he just couldn't see himself taking her Dragon's Eye, regardless of how bad he wanted more power. There was also that kid from before, the one whose family was practically wiped out when F tried to hunt him down, but as with Aya, Souichiro can't bring himself to take the kid's red feather power.

"Crap, is there anyone left for me other than those two?" he asked aloud. Souichiro had been walking nonstop, barely paying attention to where he was even going. It felt like days have passed since he left the destroyed Juken Club dojo. He sighed.

If he wasn't so deep in thought, he'd have noticed someone nearby. "Hey, boy," the person called out.

Souichiro, taken off guard, quickly turned to come face to face with a strange man. The man was quite tall and it was obvious by his build that was a fighter, his muscles showing through the white shirt that he had on. It went together with his pants and what looked like a cloak, which were white as well. The guy's hair was even the same color.

"Who are you?" Souichiro asked. He was surprised by how calm the guy was. Normally people would be wetting their pants at the feel of the monstrous Ki that Souichiro unconsciously radiates, but this man was perfectly fine. He even seemed amused.

"My name is Isshinsai Ogata, but I like to be called Kensei," the man said. He moved closer to Souichiro.

Souichiro looked passive, not seeming nervous of the Kensei's calmness, but that didn't mean he wasn't suspicious. "What do you want, old man?"

Kensei chuckled. "Pretty blunt, I see."

Souichiro's eyes narrowed. Kensei put his hands up as if he were surrendering. "What do you want?" Souichiro repeated.

"Might as well get straight to the point," Kensei mused aloud, "I want you to come with me."

"And why would I do something like that?" Souichiro responded.

"I noticed your Ki earlier and took the liberty of tailing you for a bit. And in the process, I couldn't help, but take note of what you were saying to yourself. Something about red feathers I believe." Kensei smirked as he saw that he now had Souichiro's full attention.

"What about it?" Souichiro didn't like where this was going. He's been played before and he could tell that Kensei was trying to do the same thing.

"Come with me and we'll talk about it." They both stared at each other, Souichiro looking positively suspicious of Kensei while Kensei seemed to be amused still by this whole thing.

Souichiro had to ponder this. He's been used as Sohaku's little experiment for a while and this guy was giving off a similar vibe. But he had to admit that while Kensei may not know anything about red feathers, there is still a chance that he could help him. After all, it's not like he could do it on his own now given how few that probably remain. And if the guy turns out to try and double cross him, then Souichiro will have no choice, but to deal with him.

"Fine." Kensei seemed delighted.

"Then follow me," he said and took off with Souichiro in pursuit. Souichiro didn't bother to ask where they were going since he wasn't expecting an answer and also didn't bother to try and memorize any landmarks since he sucked at doing stuff like that. He was thankful that Kensei didn't try to make small talk along the way because he really just couldn't bring himself to focus on anything right now. That and the guy creeped him out a bit.

Before long, they arrived at their destination. Souichiro didn't bother to see what the place was. As of now, he had tunnel vision and getting this over with was the only thing he had on his mind. He continued to follow Kensei until eventually when Souichiro finally snapped out of his little funk, he was standing in front of two huge doors.

"Come in," Kensei said as he pushed the doors open. Souichiro followed him in and had to blink in surprise at the exterior of the room. It looked like some kind open wide area with no furniture nor windows or anything else of the sort for that matter. The only thing that stood out were pillars around the room.

Souichiro was a bit taken aback by the simplicity of the room. He was expecting something a bit more impressive, but then again maybe he had been Sohaku's guinea pig for so long that he had gotten used to the traditional japanese decor of the room Sohaku had kept him in.

However, he noted that his current line of thinking could wait for later as he noticed that there were other people in the room. There were seven in total and all appeared to be fighters, just like Kensei here. It appeared that they had been talking up until he and Kensei had come to the doors as they were now all staring at him with an analyzing gaze.

"Who is this?" a man with a strange mask on demanded. He sounded on edge, as if he was ready to fight.

Souichiro looked at the others and saw that they all seemed to be feeling the same. Not doubt their reaction to him is because of the Ki he kept giving off.

"Ah, this is, I suppose you could say, our new recruit," Kensei calmly said.

They all looked surprised at that, Souichiro included. What the hell was Kensei getting at? That was a question that ran through all of their minds. It took only a few seconds for them to regain their composure and talk.

"Ridiculous. What could this boy possibly do to make you consider him as a recruit?" another man with long blond hair asked.

The others were quick to agree with this question in the form of a nod. Some began to chat among themselves about Souichiro. It began to piss him off that they all seemed to ignore him and it showed through his Ki as it skyrocketed to such a level that everyone there except Kensei nearly reacted to it with violence.

"Hey, I didn't come here just to be pissing off a bunch of old guys. If I had known this would happen, I'd have just left," Souichiro growled. He could feel his blood boiling for a fight, something that he could really use to blow off some steam right now.

They all merely stared at him until one of them, a tall, dark-skinned man laughed. "You certainly have guts, boy. And you have an impressive Ki as well. For a second there, even I felt a little scared."

Then they all heard footsteps coming. They all looked back to see that someone was walking down some steps. Souichiro had just then noticed that the newcomer had been sitting in some kind of chamber at the top of a small flight of stairs not that far behind the group. It was obvious from the person's build that it was a man, but Souichiro couldn't make out the guy's face as he stood back far enough for his face to be hidden.

The room fell quiet as the man seemed to calmly analyze Souichiro. Souichiro tried to do the same with the man, but his skills at measuring others were lacking. Nevertheless, he could tell that the man wasn't one to be taken lightly and in fact, he's the only one that Souichiro could say is more powerful than Kensei. At least, that's the vibe he's picking up here.

"Sohaku?" the man finally said.

Souichiro raised his head in surprise. "He knows that bastard?" he thought. Now things were beginning to get interesting, he couldn't help but feel.

"How do you know my dad?" Souichiro slightly cringed as he called Sohaku his dad. He didn't even know why he said that.

The man took this in without making a sound. "I see. Then you must be Nagi Souichiro," he replied.

Souichiro, for the first time today, actually looked shocked. "The true warrior, Susanno... it's clear that Sohaku's plan has come to fruition," he continued.

The others' faces lit up at the mention of Susanno. "What? You mean to say that this boy is the true warrior?" the man with the mask nearly yelled.

His exclamation was ignored though. "You are in search of red feathers I presume?" the man asked.

Now Souichiro was beginning to have a slight freak out. "How does he know so much?" he thought with no small amount of suspicion. "So what if I am?"

"I would like to help you of course." The man still appeared to be calm, but Souichiro could feel a bit of Ki coming off of him and it actually made him tense. "I just want you to do something in return if you agree."

"What do you have in mind?" Souichiro wasn't liking this, but really, he had no way of tracking down any remaining red feathers so maybe the guy would be able to help after all. However, he wasn't entirely sure that the man was one to be trusted, at least not more so than Sohaku.

"Join YOMI," the man said. This caused a bit of an uproar from some of the others in the room. Kensei, who was still standing close to Souichiro merely chuckled. He was obviously amused by this whole thing.

"What in the hell is YOMI?" Souichiro asked.

"It's a group consisting of our disciples," the man explained as he motioned to the people in the room before continuing, "I would like you to join YOMI."

"And if this YOMI group is made up of your students, then who the hell are you guys?"

"We are Yami, YOMI's masters."

Souichiro stared at him, weighing the pros and the cons of this little deal. On the plus side, he had these guys to help him in his search and if the huge room was anything to judge by, then they probably had a large amount of money to help get around. On the negative side, he'd be part of a group that may or may not try to start something with him and these Yami guys don't seem too thrilled by his presence either. And of course, there's the chance that they will betray him at some point down the line. But right now, with Sohaku still trying to take over, he couldn't afford to do this alone. "Fine, you have a deal."

The man nodded. "Then Kensei here will take you to your new group. And rest assured that we will help you."

And with that, Kensei walked out of the room, motioning for Souichiro to follow him again. Souichiro had just barely gotten out of the room when he heard some of the people in there start to try and argue with their apparent leader.

He was a bit taken aback by the man being so willing to help. Now in some cases, something like that would be a good thing, but nothing about this Yami or YOMI even come close to falling into that category.

"We're here," Kensei announced.

He motioned to two doors, not quite as big as the first ones, but still big. He was about to open the door when Souichiro stopped him. "You brought me here because you knew this would happen didn't you?"

Kensei smirked. "Oh nothing like that. But if it'll make you relax, then let's just say that I want the same thing as our leader." He said that last part with a strange look on his face.

He opened the doors and led Souichiro in. There were several people around Souichiro's age in the room. To say that all of them were a bit different would be an understatement; not a single one looked even remotely average. One of them, a boy, looked like a soldier while another was in a wheelchair and had white hair like Kensei. The only girl in the room was dressed up as a lucha libre that Souichiro thought he'd see only on TV. The others were just as unique as them in their own ways.

"Who's this?" a boy with dark skin and strange red eyes asked.

"This is YOMI's new member." Kensei smiled at how all of them tensed in response to Souichiro's Ki.

Not a single one of them said anything, they merely sized Souichiro up carefully. Some of them looked ready to attack him. Kensei gestured for them to calm down, which took a minute or two. "Now, now, he was asked personally to be part of YOMI so the least you could do is welcome him to the group." He snickered as they all slowly relaxed and then he went for the door. "Hope you like your new home," Kensei said as he left.

Souichiro ignored him and focused on the people in front of him. None of them moved nor did they want to, all of them were too weary of Souichiro's frightening Ki to do anything and Souichiro just didn't really care.

Eventually, one of them, a guy with long bluish hair in a ponytail, walked up to him. "Welcome to YOMI," he said.

And that's the first chapter. I had several scenarios planned out instead of the one I had in this chapter when Souichiro meets Yami, but none seemed as good as this one, but I still feel that I'm being off on something.

Well, at any rate I hope that you liked it and if not, then I hope that you'll come to like it in the future because I love writing and I want others to enjoy whatever stories that I do even if it's just a little bit.

Please review.


	2. Chapter 2

Ah time for the next chapter. I had hoped to get around to it sooner, but some things got in the way. However, I shouldn't be complaining about that since I'm doing it now. Man, do I have some plans for this fic.

Hope you enjoy.

Chapter 2

Months have past since Souichiro had fought Masataka. Since then the dojo has been restored thanks to the reconstruction being funded by Mitsuomi. Everyone who had been hurt in the explosion had recovered, the Juken Club among them, and things have returned to normal since then.

Inside the dojo sat Masataka and Tsumuji, Masataka holding a coin in a robotic hand that Tsumuji had connected to his arm to make up for the hand he lost. Masataka folded the coin without much effort. "See, the output on this is too high Tsumuji-kun," Masataka complained.

"Really? It's pretty convenient to be able to crush concrete like it is tofu," Tsumuji replied.

"I already told you I don't need that... I want it to feel more natural," Masataka said.

As they continued their conversation about his arm, Bob and Madoka entered the dojo, two freshmen greeting them. "Hello! Masa-kun! We're here!" Madoka waved. Bob remained silent.

"Oh hey guys," Masataka replied.

Then he noticed Aya walk in. He fell silent as she appeared as gloomy as she was during the past months. Bob and Madoka noticed her as well and followed Masataka's example. They all knew what was eating at her, but none of them could build up the courage to bring it up.

Aya was feeling down because they had failed to take down Sohaku and free Souichiro from him. And not only did they fail to do that, but Souichiro took off before anything could be done and right afterwards, Mitsuomi used his connections to try and get some info of where he might be, but that led to dead ends. It was as if Souichiro has just dropped off the face of the earth.

Mitsuomi had started putting some people on the job of keeping an eye and ear out for anything on Souichiro just in case, but so far there hasn't been so much as a single mention of his name anywhere. This worried everyone greatly. After all, considering that Souichiro is the true warrior, him disappearing like that was quite disturbing to happen taking into account how much power he possessed.

All of them stayed silent and changed into their training gi. As this occurred, Emi and Mitsuomi himself showed up by the entrance, their arrival going unnoticed. They didn't mind this since they merely stopped by to check on them. Even though they graduated last year along with Maya, they felt compelled to stop by, Emi in particular now that she was working as a teacher part time at Toudou Academy.

"They're still not over it?" Emi wondered aloud.

"Well, it's understandable. The boy has been gone for months and there hasn't been a single sighting of him," Mitsuomi commented. He had hoped that there would have been some word of Souichiro when some of the investigators he had on his payroll stop by earlier, but the briefing had ended the same as every time before.

"Still no word on him, Mitsuomi-san?" Emi asked.

He shook his head. He watched with disinterest at the Juken Club's training that was going on, not a single one still noting their presence. Mitsuomi observed each and every member. Bob seemed to be holding up quite well , which was expected of him as he was Souichiro's best friend and is also a powerful fighter in his own right. Aya didn't seem to be holding up though. In fact, she didn't try to hide her despair over this at all.

The same could be said of the remaining members. The only one that is doing his best to keep it cool like Bob was Masataka, but Mitsuomi could easily see right through his act. Ever since Souichiro vanished, Masataka has seemed to blame himself, most likely thinking that he should have tried harder. And Maya seemed to feel the same way, judging by the last time he saw her.

Now it was stressing enough practically having a small army of people keeping a lookout for Souichiro, but Maya was another thing altogether. He knew that Maya had planned to sacrifice herself to purify Souichiro, but whatever had happened prevented that stunt. Nevertheless, Mitsuomi knew that Maya probably wouldn't hesitate to try something like that again. Given the way she sees herself as responsible for Souichiro, it would be a surprise if she didn't try again. Just thinking about that gave him a serious headache.

Mitsuomi sighed and turned to leave. "You're going already? You just barely got here," Emi said.

"No point in me coming if I don't have anything to say to them," Mitsuomi replied as he walked off, sounding a bit colder than he had meant to. Emi reluctantly followed him after a minute or two, leaving the Juken Club to their training, unaware that Masataka had actually been watching them from where he was. "Nagi... just where the hell are you?" he thought.

In another city, a boy with somewhat spikey brown hair running down the street trying to catch up with a girl. "Dang, I overslept!" he nearly yelled. He continued his running until he was right behind the girl, a curvaceous blonde. "Ah, Miu-san!" he said as he placed a hand on her shoulder.

The girl, Miu, without any warning quickly grabbed him and threw him over head. He cried out as he didn't see it coming. "Oh no, I reacted automatically..." she thought. However, the boy flipped through the air and landed perfectly on his feet.

"Morning, Miu-san!" he said.

Miu smiled at him. "You've improved a lot Kenichi-san."

He chuckled nervously. "If you hadn't let go during that throw, I'd end up in the hospital on the first day of school..."

"You're embarrassing me..." Miu replied with a small blush.

They both shared a laugh and continued to walk to school. Months have past and the new school year was beginning with them now being second year students. Kenichi was looking forward to what the year might have in mind for him. As long as it didn't involve any near death experiences of course.

"How does it feel to be home again?" Miu asked.

"I can't stand the never ending questions by Honoka. I told her that I entered some martial arts tournament and won and that's why I got injured all over my body." Kenichi thought back to when he had finally arrived home with a fake certificate saying he was the winner, something that Apachai had made.

"That's pretty close to what actually happened," Miu commented after a quick giggle.

They continued to talk until they got to school and checked out the class roster. To their joy, they were still in the same class. Their friends, Takeda and Ukita, who were third years the year before, however weren't blessed with the gift of graduating as they were delinquents for a good part of their school lives.

Both sat down, their sulking obvious. "We're delinquents, of course we didn't graduate!" Takeda said a bit gloomily.

Ukita scratched his head. "Damn, I guess we have to start studying this year."

Kisara passed by them and overheard their little comments. "Then you're in the same year as me?" she asked, which made Ukita cheer up.

"Hey Shirahama, you're still alive?" Tanimoto, who just showed up, said. He let loose an annoyed glance at Kenichi.

"Oh Tanimoto-kun! I haven't seen you in forever, I really missed you!" Kenichi looked ready to give the guy a hug, but Tanimoto quickly pushed him away with his foot.

"I don't need you to worry about me!"

"Everybody is watching, Mr. Fake Nice Student," Kenichi pointed out.

With just those words, Tanimoto swapped personalities in an instant, getting Kenichi in what could be called a crushing hug, although it also looked as if he was trying to strangle him. "Hello there Kenichi-kun! My best friend! I'm glad I could collect enough credits for the second year!" he said in a happy voice, trying to play his part of the nice guy to the fullest.

Meanwhile, another friend of Kenichi's, one that he would prefer not call that, was checking some things out on his portable computer system. "First of all our new formation!" Nijima, or as Kenich liked to him, the alien, said, getting cries of "yes, general!" from his Shinpaku underlings.

After Tanimoto let go of him, Kenichi bumped into two other people he knew: Izumi, who was in the gardening club with him and Izumi's friend, Makoto. "We're in the same class again!" Izumi remarked happily.

"It's always the same," Makoto commented, eliciting a chuckle from Kenichi.

Izumi held up two tickets. "Umm... even though it's a bit sudden, how about... on Sunday..." sh didn't finish though as Kenichi was called over by Miu, completely ruining her chance to ask him out, which Makoto pointed out.

However, as Kenichi moved towards Miu, two shadows blocked out the sun from his eyes and he turned to see two tall students, delinquents by the looks of it, smirking arrogantly at him. "This is the Kouryou High School, right? We are newcomers. You too?" When Kenichi didn't respond, he bent down low to him. "Your face is annoying me... huhhh..."

Kenichi merely looked away, but then received a bonk on the head from Tanimoto. "Yo, you guys are first year students, right?" he asked of the two.

"Ha, so that's what a second year looks like!" the guy seemed to ignore Tanimoto.

"I'm getting sick of these losers... what's wrong with this school?" Tanimoto muttered to himself.

"Hey you there, go to the aula! You worms..." the guys turned to see Nijima riding atop the shoulders of one of his men, the others members of the Shinpaku Alliance standing at his side. The guys immediately apologized, having heard of Shinpaku.

"That man over there is our captain Shirahama!" one of the guys pointed out, which made the guys freak out more. They started to bombard Kenichi with apologies, to which he kept saying it was okay. After the guys left, Nijima let out a sigh.

"Give me a break... Kenichi... the champion of D of D cannot be afraid first year high school students, you get it?"

"But I'm still afraid of delinquents!" Kenichi shot back furiously.

This led to a little debate between the two as they headed to the opening ceremony. Eventually, Nijima and the Shinpaku guys went in one direction, but before Kenichi could let out a sigh at Nijima's lecture, Kisara, Takeda, and Ukita approached him. "Huh, you look more mature. Your body is fine now?" Kisara asked.

"Yeah, after this long rest at home, I feel great, but now I'm afraid I got a little bit rusty." Kenichi said with a smile. It was great to see his friends again after the D of D tournament. They had all fought some desperate battles at that time, but they had made it alive and recovered from the ordeal.

"Ever since that incident on Despair Island, YOMI hasn't done anything yet," Ukita pointed out.

Takeda nodded. "Don't underestimate them. Even though I have master James Shiba to train me..." He trailed off as the principal came up to the podium.

"Everybody, please be quiet. The opening ceremony has begun! By the way, I have good news!" he said. This got everyone's attention. "Our school has accepted an exchange program and you will have some foreign classmates for a period of time from Thailand, Russia, and America!"

With that said, three people walked out onto the podium, making Kenichi and his friends freeze as they saw who they were. Before them stood three members of YOMI, fully dressed in school uniform. "YOMI... is here?" they all thought in shock.

"And to add to that good news," the principal continued, "we also have a transfer from another school here in Japan..." he trailed off as a look of absolute fear came over his face.

The same could be said of everyone else in the room as a powerful presence could be felt approaching. The room fell deathly silent as everyone felt terror grip their hearts. The room was so silent that a few seconds later, they could all now hear footsteps, heavy footsteps by the sound of it and cracking could also be heard.

Slowly a figure emerged from the side door of the room and made its way onto the podium. It was a boy, but unlike any of them have ever seen. The guy had pitch black skin, like that of coal and with long silver hair that went straight down to his feet. His head was leaning downwards, causing his hair to cover his face.

As he walked, everyone glanced down at his feet as with every step he took, a small crater would appear where he had stepped. They all looked ready to drop anything they were holding and run. Kenichi and his friends all looked ready to take up a defensive posture in case something happened, but not a single person moved. They felt that if they had moved, something truly terrifying would happen.

The guy finally stopped next to the YOMI members, not paying attention to the way that they flinched at his presence. He slowly raised his head, exposing what could be golden markings on the side of his eyes and on his forehead, standing out quite a bit from his coal like skin. His sclarea were as black as his skin and his irises were a fierce gold. He stared outwards to the crowd before him. They all slightly squirmed beneath his gaze.

Kenichi would have loved nothing more than to run from the sheer amount of Ki that was coming off of the guy. Not even Kano had as much as him and the amount of bloodlust that was coming off the guy as well was just as large. Kenichi has gone up against quite a large bunch of people and they were all pretty bloodthirsty too, but they didn't hold a candle to this guy, something that Kenichi never thought possible.

He glanced at Miu out of the corner of his eye and saw that although she hid it well, she was shaking, most likely for the same reason as him: fear. Then Kenichi looked over to Takeda, Ukita, and Kisara and wasn't surprised to see them reacting the same way. It was obvious that this newcomer was beyond anyone they're ever fought.

As Kenichi focused his attention back on the podium, a girl had appeared next to the petrified principal and grabbed the microphone from his hand. "I'm first! I am the extremely charming girl from America! Rachel Stanley! Second year!" she said enthusiastically into the mic, ignoring the feeling in the room. Her eyes narrowed a bit. "It's nice to meet you all."

And that's a wrap for this chapter! Phew, the first part of this had me rethinking my original scenario, but as no alternate scenes came to mind, I just stuck to what I already had planned. Anyway, chances are I won't be putting up the next chapter to this for a few more weeks, depends on how my other fic goes and how much school is going to make me rework my schedule.

I hope you liked it and please leave a review.


	3. Chapter 3

Ah man, school has started up again and now I'm going to have my hands full with my Senior Project. One of these days, I'm going to head to some random college and ask a student if they have to go around and do fieldwork whenever they have to do a major essay.

Well, just got to deal with it and hope nothing too crazy gets thrown at me otherwise I might be screwed depending on what happens.

But enough with my whining. Onto the chapter!

Chapter 3

Everyone was quiet as Rachel stood there with the microphone. "Hi everybody! How are you doing? We're the exchange students!" she said into the mic, seemingly oblivious to the intense atmosphere that resulted from the strange student.

Finally, after a moment of staying in place out of fear, the principal snapped out of his current state and made a grab for the mic. He grabbed it and pulled it rather forcefully out of Rachel's hands, something that nearly made her cry.

He straightened himself up before speaking. "Now let me reintroduce the students... from Russia, Boris Ivanov!" he said gesturing to a guy with somewhat spikey silver hair and a stern expression. "From Thailand, Tirawit Koukin!" Now the principal gestured to the dark skinned boy that had three tribal markings on his face. "And from America, the siblings Ethan and Rachel Stanley!" the tall, muscular boy stayed silent while Rachel waved enthusiastically.

The principal finally turned to face the boy that caused the silence in the room and unconsciously shuddered as he looked at the new student. "And lastly, from another school here in Japan, Nagi Souichiro!" the principal nearly cried out as Souichiro looked at him with a disinterested look in his eyes.

The principal turned and faced the crowd. "They are now officially second grades, be gentle to them!"

With that said, he dismissed the students and the transfer students followed suit as well. Everyone cleared a big path out for Souichiro, who merely surveyed the area with a quick gaze before walking off to somewhere.

As the immense pressure caused by his presence began to disappear as he got further away from them, the students slowly began to feel a bit of nervous excitement at the new transfer students, especially the guys as they showed great interest in Rachel. She in turn was very happy at the attention she was receiving while Boris, Ethan, and Tirawit just stood off to the side and didn't try to mingle with the others.

Kenichi and the others slowly approached them with the exception of Nijima, who stayed behind all of them eyeing the direction that Souichiro went. When they came close enough to the YOMI members, Tirawit noticed them and walked up to Kenichi until they were only several inches away from each other, a perfectly short distance for them to throw a punch. Miu could sense small amounts of Ki flowing around them as they sized each other up. Takeda, Ukita, and Kisara looked ready to jump into the middle in case things got bad.

Kenichi looked Tirawit right in the eyes. "What are your intentions? YOMI!" he demanded.

Tirawit looked around the area. "So this is your school? Looks much smaller than I expected... about 800 people inside... we probably need 2 hours..."

"What?" Kenichi demanded, knowing what Tirawit was going to say.

"No... since half of them are women, we only need one and a half hours to annihilate everyone in this school." He turned to observe what kind of reaction he'd get out of Kenichi.

However, Kenichi wasn't the one to react to this first. Takeda got right up in his face and grabbed him by the scruff of his shirt. "Hey you, Kenichi asked you a question..."

"Do I need to explain? This is a school right? We're here to study. In addition..." Tirawit paused momentarily to flick Takeda back, "in addition... we're here to teach... to teach you that we, the Satsujin Ken from Yami, are the strongest."

He turned around and began to walk away. "Shirahama Kenichi... I heard you fought with Kano... you will need more experience before you can face me..." The other members of YOMI stood several feet away from him, each of them gazing at Kenichi as if to say the same thing. Tirawit continued walking. "And a word of warning to you all: stay clear of Nagi Souichiro. If he were to take part in exterminating everyone in this school, we wouldn't even need half an hour to do it."

That last part got everyone's attention. Souichiro is undoubtedly strong, the inhuman amount of Ki he gives off proves that, but to think that he alone could make that much of a difference in whatever it is YOMI has planned was truly terrifying especially since they seemed to be a bit afraid of him as well.

"Ge-general, these guys are nothing special! Because we are the Shinpaku Alliance who reached the semi finals of D of D!" one of the Shinpaku members exclaimed without much courage.

"O-of course," Nijima replied while cowering behind Ukita, who snarled at Nijima to not touch him. Nijima ignored him though and pointed at Kenichi. "Look, our champion, the one who beat all his opponents!"

"OooH! Captain Shirahama doesn't seem impressed at all!" the Shinpaku member from a moment ago said.

Miu took a step towards Kenichi when she heard him let out a quick chuckle. Suddenly, he let out a yell and took off, quickly running out of the school area with Miu in pursuit. "I knew it," she said.

"Ah, where is Captain Shirahama going?" the Shinpaku member asked.

Nijima turned to face the Alliance. "Oh, don't worry, you know how your captain is. He's just gone off to train to crush those guys," he said confidently, but he knew that right now that Kenichi didn't have a chance at beating those YOMI guys. Speaking of them, he had to go check them out, especially one in particular.

He relaxed himself a bit. "Well, I can't just leave it to my good buddy Kenichi to deal with them. I gotta do my part too by getting some info on those guys."

"Ah, so noble of the general to fight alongside his best friend at all costs!" the Shinpaku members cried out. They did the Shinpaku salute as Nijima took off, going in the same direction that Souichiro went in, leaving the Alliance along with Takeda, Ukita, and Kisara behind. However, none of them noticed someone watching from afar.

"Have to report this to Mitsuomi-san," the man said as he had watched the whole thing.

Meanwhile, Kenichi, having just ran at top speed, arrived at Ryozanpaku, a place where those who have mastered their skills gather. "Master! Help me!" Kenichi yelled as Miu just sighed. Kenichi can be pretty predictable most of the time.

As he entered the dojo and began to shout out the situation he was in, Shio Sakaki, the karate user with 100 dan cleaved a large boulder in two with a chop. "What? The disciples of Yami are in his school? What should we do, Akisame?"

Koetsuji Akisame, the philosophical jujitsu user ignored his question at first, thanking him instead for chopping the boulder. He pondered what Kenichi had said though. "They have finally moved... but it's like a knife in the throat... we were wondering how they would react and they have the nerve to come spreading their Satsujin Ken's ideals."

Ma Kensei, a master of all chinese kempo, chipped in as well. "It has begun..."

Apachai Hopachai, the underground's muay thai death god, moved up to the split boulder and began to kick it rapidly. "How about Apachai stay at the school to protect Kenichi? Then he won't get hurt," he said, which drew a comment from Kensei saying that Kenichi would end up really hurt. "Apachai help you with crushing rocks!"

Akisame, who had taken off with the first half of the boulder, came back and stared at what was left of the other half. "Eh? Where is the other half?"

Kousaka Shigure, a prodigy of weapons was nearby, finishing up with cleaning her sword. "The school is like a shogi board..." she paused as she sliced an apple into several pieces, "it's decided in one round."

Why? How can everyone be so calm?" Kenichi exclaimed, having a panic attack. "Your disciple is in danger!"

He went up to Akisame. "Koetsuji-sensei! You must have a plan, right?"

Akisame chuckled. "Of course I have a plan... a great one."

Kenichi could have hugged him right there and then. "Wah! No wonder you're my favorite master! So, what is it?"

Akisame chuckled once more and before Kenichi even knew it, he was standing on some kind of platform with three wooden contraptions on it attacking him at insane speeds. Kenichi let out a cry at this. "More training!" Akisame exclaimed his master plan. "Don't lose to YOMI in speed, power, or technique! I need a disciple who can carry out justice! That's why you need a strong body!"

Kenichi had forgotten to tell his masters about that Souichiro guy that was with YOMI and would have told them now if he wasn't fighting for his lie. "Why do I have to carry out harder training every time I face stronger opponents? I don't want to die!"

Akisame now laughed aloud. "Let's see if you get killed by them or get tortured to death by training first! It's like a game!"

"No it's not! This isn't funny at all! Someone stop him!" However, Kenichi's plea fell on deaf ears as the other master merely watched, Sakaki and Apachai appearing to be laughing.

"Yami's teaching only causes sadness... if they have come to teach the Satsujin Ken..." Miu said as she leapt into the middle of the platform, now dressed in her training gi. "Then we will show them the power of our Katsujin Ken! Let's fight together!"

This elicited a positive response from Kenichi and before long the two of them were practically pummeling Akisame's strange invention. The Elder, the invincible superman, Furinji Hayato, sat by and observed them with a smile on his face. "Ken-chan, indeed you have beaten the leader of YOMi and won the D of D tournament, but that's already past. That kind of day, that kind of power might never reappear. Martial arts is like hot water. If you don't heat it up constantly, it'll cool down. And the source of that heat is training!" His speech earned a cry of "yes Elder," from Kenichi as he and Miu continued their training.

As they continued to do this, back at the school, the YOMI students stuck around as Tirawit made a call to the new leader of YOMI, Satomi Kajima. "I see, so you're in," Kajima said over the phone.

"Should we proceed with the plan?" Tirawit asked.

"Don't rush it. It's a good opportunity to live a normal life. Enjoy it. And speaking of leading a normal life, how is Souichiro holding up?" Aside from their masters, Kajima was one of three people that were seemingly unaffected by Souichiro's Ki. He had actually become a sort of close friend with Souichiro, hence why he calls him by his first name without any prefix at the end. This was something that the others of YOMI had trouble comprehending. To think that someone could actually befriend him was quite insane, even by their standards. Asamiya Ryuto, one of the other two that wasn't scared of him merely regarded as an acquittance and that was sort of stretching things.

"He's fine, but I'm not sure that he'll follow orders," Tirawit responded.

"Oh don't worry, I know that he seems to shrug us off, but he really does do as he says," Kajima said back.

"How should we proceed?" Tirawit asked, trying to get back on topic.

"How to do it? Ah... I'll let you decide individually. I don't like restrictions..." Kajima's voice took on a dark tone.

"Understood." Tirawit hung up and put the phone away. "Let's split up!" The others didn't have to be told twice. They all went their separate ways, with their own plans in mind for the school.

And in a deserted area that overlooked most of the city, Souichiro stood there gazing at all of the people below. He watched as some of them would stiffen at his Ki even though he was a considerable distance above them. He sighed at how they would act even though they didn't know what it was that caused their reactions.

Not very far back, hiding behind a small nearby building, Nijima sat by the side of it observing Souichiro, his little PDA pad or whatever it was out in his hands. He shivered every other second. "Damn, this guy gives me the creeps. I just came here to see if I could get some info on him, but he hasn't so much as punched at the air," he thought, growing increasingly uncomfortable being so close to Souichiro.

Souichiro didn't notice him though and closed his eyes. Over the time he has been with YOMI, Yami had held up their end of their little deal and had helped to gather a few red feathers. It wasn't much, just one or two, but considering how many abilities he had gained before fighting Masataka, Souichiro hadn't expected to get very many. Besides, it was some progress and it had helped to weaken Sohaku's influence a bit.

However, Sohaku wasn't very deterred by this and his influence began to grow in strength again so Souichiro had lately begun to use one of the many abilities he had acquired. He redirected some of his Ki to his ears, which increased his sense of hearing by a large amount, enough to rival a dog. Souichiro listened to the sounds of the city, the cars honking and the people walking about and talking animatedly. It helped to drown out Sohaku quite well.

He wished that he were playing shogi or something with Kajima. Ever since he had joined YOMI, he found it somewhat relaxing to be around him and another person, a girl who's name he never got, but was still comfortable around even though she didn't stop by often. He remembered how Kajima got him to play shogi one day and ended up losing to him horribly. Being the stubborn person that he is, he didn't quit and kept challenging Kajima at shogi every now and then.

Souichiro was snapped out of his little trip down memory lane though as his heightened hearing now picked up a heart beat that was very close by. He waited a few seconds to see if maybe it was his imagination, but his growing suspicion was confirmed when he heard mumbling from the same source. He looked out of the corner of his eyes and saw some weird looking alien guy with something in his hands. From what he was mumbling, it seemed that the guy was part of the Shinpaku Alliance. Souichiro's eyes narrowed at this.

Nijima wasn't aware that he was spotted though, just tapping his PDA, trying to ignore the atmosphere surrounding Souichiro. "Just one thing... just do at least one thing so I know what you can do..." he thought, feeling incredibly desperate to just get some info on Souichiro's capabilities and run away.

His mental plea was silenced however when he heard a faint crackle. Nijima looked up from his PDA just in time to have seen something by Souichiro's feet. "What was that?" he muttered to himself. The crackle happened again, this time he actually saw what caused it. It was brief, but he could have sworn he saw what look like a spark by Souichiro's feet.

More of these sparks appeared. Nijima grew afraid, or at least more so than before. He saw some of those same sparks come down from the sky and that was when he silently decided that now was the time to run, a decision that he quickly followed on as he took off like the devil was after him.

He did this not a moment too soon as thunder suddenly roared out of nowhere, hurting his eardrums. Something struck not too far away from where he had been standing and whatever it was, it was powerful as it caused an explosion that sent him flying several feet through the air. Nijima let out a piercing scream as he hit the ground hard. Fortunately for him, he avoided hitting his head and the fall wasn't too bad and he was able to get up relatively quick.

As he stood, he was met with a jaw dropping site. Before him was a deep crater where he was a moment before observing Souichiro. Sparks flew up from the center, where he could see pieces of the small building he was by near the center. "What the hell was that?" he cried out, thankful that at least whatever it was, it hadn't hit him head on.

This sense of shock, awe, and relief quickly wavered though as on the other side of the crater was Souichiro staring right at him. Nijima froze in place as fear overcame him completely. Souichiro began to walk towards him, his steps making small craters in the process. And he didn't seem very happy.

Phew, done!

Oh man, whenever I read over this chapter, I can't help but feel a bit excited to start the next chapter right away, but alas I am pretty much hell bent on focusing on my other fic next.

For those of you reading this fic, I hope that you enjoyed the ending as I can tell you right now that encounter between those two is going to be a bit funny and suspenseful (well, I'm going to try to make it as suspenseful as possible).

Hope you enjoyed it and please, please review.


	4. Chapter 4

Ah, I so hate Senior Project. Field work is such a major pain in the ass that it's just plain ridiculous. Chances are that very soon, I'll be swamped with it and it'll keep me from updating my fics for some time so I apologize in advance to you all who enjoy my fics. Man I can't wait until Senior Project is done. That'll be a great day.

Here's the next chapter. Hope you enjoy.

Chapter 4

Nijima looked about ready to crap his pants at the glare Souichiro was giving him. And the crater wasn't exactly helping him regain his composure. He couldn't even bring himself to scurry away from the approaching Souichiro.

Souichiro growled a bit, peeved that this weird looking alien guy was practically stalking him. Here he was just minding his own business and someone just had to come and bug him. Souichiro's eyes bore into Nijima's and it was then and there he recognized the alien as the leader of the Shinpaku Alliance that he's been told about. He cracked the knuckles in his fists.

Nijima, at the sound of this, finally regained his senses enough to try and stop him. He immediately got on his hands and knees and bowed as low as possible to the ground. "Please, oh great one, spare me!" he cried out. He knew that this had to be the crappiest thing he's ever said to worm his way out from something, but it was the best he had come up with in under a second. He moved forward and damn near hugged Souichiro's legs, making said person back a few steps away with a look of disgust on his face. "Please, I beg you, forgive my stupidity!" Nijima moved closer to him.

As soon as he started doing that, Souichiro once again stepped back, more than weirded out by this display. This freak before him was certainly creepy to say the least. This was what Nijima had hoped for. Souichiro took another step back and that was when Nijima suddenly got up and took off as fast as he could. He could be heard laughing maniacally in the distance.

Souichiro stood dumbfounded for several seconds, then he snarled a bit as he realized that he was just played. He couldn't believe that the so called general of the Shinpaku Alliance was such a coward. "That little punk," he thought as he took off after him. He wasn't about to let him get away.

While that was going on, back at the Natsume home, Maya, the former captain of the Juken Club collapsed onto her bed covered in sweat. She breathed heavily into the sheets, feeling absolutely exhausted from the training she has been putting herself through. Ever since Souichiro disappeared, she, like everyone else, had been in something of a funk, feeling that something more could have been done to help him.

In an attempt to alleviate some of the guilt she had felt for failing to stop Sohaku in Souichiro's mind, Maya had begun a rigorous training regimen not long afterwards, pushing herself to her limit and then a little beyond every time. Sometimes Maya had found Aya watch her, but the younger sister did nothing to console her, instead choosing to keep to herself. Maya didn't complain; she was in no mood to have Aya care for her.

Whenever she wasn't training, Maya would just lounge about her home, having no job to go to even though she graduated from Toudou Academy.

She flipped herself over so that she was belly side up and sighed. "Why the hell do I keep blaming myself?" she wondered for what had to be the hundredth time. "I shouldn't be like this."

Maya would have probably gone on with this short line of thinking if the phone didn't ring at that moment. Grunting just a bit, Maya reached out to the phone by her bed. "I really should cut back on the training. At the rate I'm going now, I'll be too tired to even roll over when I'm done," she muttered.

"Hello?" she said tiredly.

"Maya," the person on the other side of the phone said.

Maya immediately sat up. "Mitsuomi? What's up?" Mitsuomi wasn't exactly one to call often especially given the relationship between the two of them. At first, after the incident with Shin, both were cold towards one another, but slowly they began to patch things up. However, since Souichiro vanished, all the progress they've made in the rebuilding of their bond nearly went down the drain.

Silence reigned over Mitsuomi for so long after that, that Maya thought he had hung up or something. She was about to ask if he was still there when he spoke up. "I think you should round up your club..."

Nijima ran for his very life down the streets of the city. He was certain that he lost Souichiro, but it helped to be on the safe side, hence why he kept running. "That was close," he muttered. He slowed briefly to turn around and see if Souichiro was in sight. He wasn't.

Nijima sighed and resumed running. "Looks like I lost him."

"Lost who?" Nijima paled as he felt the familiar pressure bear down on him, a bit more fiercely than before. He looked out of the corner of his eyes and to his shock and fear saw Souichiro running alongside him not even trying.

Souichiro glared at him with those golden eyes of his. He then briefly increased his speed and was now in front of Nijima. He reached out to grab the damned alien, but was surprised to grab nothing but air. "Nijima special 90 degree turn!" Nijima cried out, now moving straight through the bushes.

Souichiro swore. This alien was becoming a real pain and he hasn't even been chasing him that long. Once again, he put on a burst of speed and easily caught up, but was thrown off by Nijima's special running move again and again.

"Damn it, he's just as fast as that scary lady!" Nijima thought as memories of Shigure chasing him ran through his mind. He made another sharp turn and headed straight for the crossway, the same one that he escaped from Tanimoto once. He smirked as he remembered how he got away from the former 6th Fist of Ragnarok. "Let me make it!"

Souichiro followed him across the crossway and, now sick of chasing Nijima, lashed out with his hair, the strands taking on a sleek and sharp look like when he fought Masataka. His eye twitched as he remembered cutting off Masataka's hand with this move, but hey the alien might actually learn not to mess with him if he got a little cut up.

The strands moved in on Nijima fast, but Nijima had moved a bit faster as he threw himself off the crossway and into the water below. Souichiro's eyes widened. "Did he just jump?"

He came to a stop and looked down in time to see Nijima quickly swim and enter a large sewer opening. "Damn it." As much as the alien had irked him by stalking him, Souichiro wasn't pissed off enough to try and follow him through the pipes. The last thing he needed was to get lost down there. The only solace he found in not continuing the chase is that maybe the guy will leave him alone now.

Suddenly, Souchiro felt his head throb. He yelled out in pain, clutching his head. He felt something creeping around inside his mind, something that he recognized instantly. "Sohaku, you bastard..." he muttered. He could feel his influence grow stronger with the rage that he had felt at the alien.

Souichiro fell to one knee as his head began to hurt more. He wondered how this could suddenly happen; he seemed to feel Sohaku's power growing weaker over the time he spent with YOMI, but now it came back full force. Was it because of his surprising rage at being stalked? Souichiro had to admit to himself that he shouldn't have been so enraged, but being followed like that just made him so angry.

The pain eventually began to subside. Slowly, Souchiro stood back up to his full height, his head groggy from the experience. He sighed a bit in relief as he cracked his neck. Looking down at where Nijima got away, he scoffed. "He wasn't worth it anyway," he said and walked away.

The rest of the day past by, not much happening other than the usual stuff. The next day, however, was a day that had Nijima more than a bit worried. He tapped his PDA. "Crap, the Shinapku Alliance is now up against YOMI and here they are in my own damn school! And they got that Souichiro guy with them too!" He shook his head at the thought of the current situation. On top of not knowing exactly what Souichiro is capable of other than what he showed yesterday, he still had no info on the other members of YOMI either. This didn't bode well for them if they had to fight soon.

He watched as the YOMI members, sans Souichiro walked past the school entrance before splitting up. "They take the same route to school as me... I better walk a different route tomorrow." Nijima shivered.

But despite how dangerous they were, he couldn't help but notice how well integrated they are into the school, noting that Rachel is a rising star on the gymnastics team alongside Miu while Tirawit is quite popular with the girls. And Boris is a favorite of the teachers as he cracked down on students that interrupted class. And the most amazing of all was Ethan, who despite his large, intimidating appearance, is well liked by the girls as he is used like a doll with them putting things in his hair.

Souichiro though, hasn't shown up since he and YOMI were first introduced at the entrance ceremony.

"Just what are they thinking?" Kenichi asked as he walked down the hallway, Nijima following close behind.

"I have no idea, but I'm just glad they're not in any of our classes..."

"Is that so? I think they're planning something behind our backs and this makes me nervous," Kenichi said with a scared expression. He's had enough to deal with as it is. The mere thought of having to take on YOMI while on school grounds where others could get hurt easily was getting to him. "Uhhh... my stomach... I can't take the mental pressure."

As they made their way up the stairs, they heard a sound, prompting them to quickly spin around and see Boris cleaning the windows. Kenichi partially assumed his seikuken stance. "Is this it?"

However, Boris just ignored him and continued to clean, saying that it was what the teacher told him to do, making Kenichi tilt his head a bit in confusion. Did he really plan on cleaning the entire school? "Hey Boris, what are your plans?" he asked, but didn't receive a response.

"Teehee, sorry, he's a very unfriendly person," someone said.

Kenichi immediately reacted to this, spinning around once again to get the person with a palm strike, only for him to unintentionally place his hand on the person's, obviously a female, large breast. "Be gentle," Rachel said playfully. Kenichi froze in shock at what he just did. "You pervert."

After removing his hand from her chest, she spoke again. "I lied at the ceremony, sorry for that. But we're here to make friends." And that said, she grabbed Kenichi by the shoulders and placed a kiss on his cheek. "Please don't misunderstand me!"

Miu was appeared from atop the stairs, glaring at the site before. Rachel noticed her presence and began to leave. "I'll tell Koukin not to do anything stupid. Kenichi, I like you a lot."

After she left, Kenichi stood there with a happy look on his face. "Maybe they are good people," he said, ignoring Nijima saying that such a thing was doubtful. He became frozen though as he heard Miu talking to him.

"What were you doing with the enemy?" she cried out.

Kenichi threw up his hands in the air. "M-Miu-san?"

In another part of the school, Tirawit found himself surrounded by three delinquents, one of them being Daimonji, the guy from the Karate Club that Kenichi first beat. "Do a jump," he told Tirawit.

"A jump?" Tirawit was perplexed by the strange request.

Daimonji flexed his arm to try and intimidate him. "That's right. You got change, right?"

"I don't fully understand."

"This is the traditional japanese way to say hi." Daimonji took his eyes off him for a quick second. "Don't ask questions, just jump!" Had he been paying attention, he would have seen Tirawit leap more than ten feet straight up, something that made the jaws of Daimonji's buddeis drop to the ground.

"Like this?" he asked.

Daimonji laughed. "I knew you had it! Now hand them over to me!" His supposed bully victim complied. "Good boy." He reached out to grab the coins that Tirawit held out to him only for him to suddenly draw his hand back. Before anything could be said, Tirawit folded one of the coins in half with his fingers and dropped the folded coin and the others into Daimonji's hand, ignoring the looks of shock the three had.

"The thai way to say hi." He grabbed Daimonji's wrist with one hand while he reach up to Daimonji's right eye with the other hand. Tirawit forcibly opened the eye wider. "Hmm... although you're pretty stupid, your body is well-built. Practicing Karate in order to bully the weak, you're the type who would do anything for power. No siblings, a middle class family." His analysis finally complete, he gave the bully an order. "Call as many minions as you can. From today on, you're my subordinate..."

On the other side of the city, the Juken Club has just gotten off the bus. "Is this the right place, senpai?" Bob asked as he shielded his eyes from the sun.

Maya walked up from behind him, followed shortly by Aya, Masataka, Shinichiro, Kagesada, and Madoka. "Yeah, this is the place." She turned to face Kagesada. "Can't believe you had to use the restroom that many damn times along the way! If you didn't have such a weak bladder, we could have been here hours ago!" Maya yelled at him.

He held up his hands defensively. "Hey, I didn't know that this place wasn't too far away! If you had told me how close it was, then I would have brought along so much water to drink on the ride!"

The two went back and forth, neither willing to give up. Masataka just sweatdropped at them. He quickly took on a serious expression as he looked out observe the area. "Nagi... this time, we will stop you."

Done! I never thought it would take this long to finish. Oh well, can't complain now that I'm actually done and that's the only thing that matters now.

Hope you enjoyed it and please review!


	5. Chapter 5

Uh man, I really, really, REALLY hate fieldwork. At first, I didn't have much of a problem with it, but now just thinking about it makes me feel tired. It's also been eating away quite a bit of my time too as you can all guess considering how much longer it's taking me to update. I know that school comes first and all, but this is getting annoying.

Thankfully, soon I won't have to worry about it (at least not too much) so I should be able to get around to my fics more often.

Chapter 5

The next day at school, Kenichi was walking, Miu at his side. Needless to say, he was worried about YOMI. "Uh... four people want to kill me and I have to face them daily in school. Now I miss the days when I was bullied," he said glumly, the idea of being bullied not seeming that bad right now. At least bullies weren't going to try and put him six feet under.

Miu didn't say anything at first, not entirely sure how to ease his mind, but eventually she did speak. "I don't know what to say, but this is different. Because I'm with you." Kenichi could help but feel touched by her words. That is until she spoke again. "No matter what happens, we are friends forever!"

Kenichi felt as if he just got stabbed through the heart. He thought to when the Elder said he had his permission to date Miu, but of course he had to tell Miu his feelings for her first. Staring at her, Kenichi wondered what Miu's feelings towards him were though. "Ah so problematic," he thought aloud.

He didn't notice a helicopter above him nor the person that jumped out. Without warning, Boris, back from some sort of mission with his master, landed nearby, startling Kenichi. Boris didn't seem to notice him or Miu and put away his parachute. It wasn't until he took out some food to eat that Kenichi shouted at him. "Boris Isanov?"

Boris looked up at them. "Breakfast is an important to the body, especially to a martial artist. There is no rule prohibiting eating borsh on the way to school!" He suddenly dashed off to school. "You should hurry too! Don't let the instructor wait!"

Kenich nearly fell over, unable to believe how strict Boris is about rules. "Can't I even have a normal spring of youth?" It was bad enough as it is with just Boris, but now that he thought about it again, he had to keep his eyes on the other YOMI members.

Both him and Miu got to school and went about their day as usual, Kenichi being scared the whole of being attacked. The only times he felt safe were when he was in class; he doubted he'd be attacked during class. "Ah, my only times of peace," he said as he sat at his desk.

However that sense of safety disappeared as he felt a familiar Ki. Everyone else felt it too. "Oh no, not him," he muttered, shaking like a leaf. The door to the classroom opened and Souichiro walked in.

Everyone immediately froze in place, only Kenichi and Miu being the only ones with enough courage to move around. Souichiro walked up to the teacher, Ono Kyoko, who was the only one to be truly unaffected by his frightening Ki. "Ah Souichiro-san, you finally showed up!" she said cheerfully, oblivious to the amazed looks that the students were giving her.

"Yeah," Souichiro said, not interested in discussing why he wasn't in school since the ceremony. He didn't want to risk losing control to Sohaku with so many people around. The only reason why he came was because he met up with the others after yesterday's little event with the alien freak and they managed to convince him to come for the sake of the mission their masters gave them.

Ono scanned the room, looking for an empty seat for Souichiro. "Well now that you're here, why don't you take a seat next to Kenichi-san over there?"

Kenichi practically jumped out of his seat at that. Here he was trying to keep away from YOMI for a while and the teacher goes right ahead and seats one of them next to him. "Uh, Ono-sensei, that seat belongs to Hayate-san," a random student pointed out. Kenichi has never been so thankful before.

"Oh right," Ono said to herself. "But he isn't here today so it won't be too much trouble."

Souichiro nodded and made his way to his temporary desk, the floor cracking from every step. Every student he passed by leaned as far away from him as they could. A pencil dropped from a girl's desk at one point and Souichiro bent down to pick it up. "Here," he said as he placed it back on her desk, surprising her as she wasn't expecting someone so terrifying to do such a simple, yet nice thing.

Souchiro took his seat, the chair sinking into the floor a bit from the pressure of his Ki. He turned towards Kenichi. Kenichi nearly yelped as Souichiro stared at him with those scary eyes of his. After what felt like hours, Souichiro looked away and Kenichi let out a sigh of relief.

"Please don't let him sit by me again tomorrow," he mentally pleaded.

The rest of class passed by slowly, everyone being very wary of Souichiro, who merely shrugged off any glances that they threw his way. It wasn't until after class that Kenichi felt a bit better. Souichiro didn't try to rip his head off so maybe he stood a chance after all.

He walked with Tanimoto. "Even though they are weird, they don't seem to plan an attack. What do you think, Natsu-chan?" Kenichi said with a chibi face only for Tanimoto to punch him on the back of his head for the 'Natsu-chan' bit.

"Just don't let your guard down. It's all we can do for now." Tanimoto won't admit it, but he was about as worried as Kenichi. He prided himself on being a martial artist, but he doubted he'd be able to take out YOMI by himself. He had no idea what sort of fighting styles they had and such lack of knowledge could prove dangerous. And Souchiro just made things worse; Tanimoto could tell from a glance that Souichiro was a wild card.

As they pondered over YOMI, Boris was inside one of the classrooms. He had a phone hidden away in a locker in the back that he used to converse with his master, something that he was doing right now. "Understood. Then I will await your arrival tonight, master."

The rest of the day passed by and now Kenichi found himself having a spar with Miu. So far, Miu had been on the offensive, coming at Kenichi with several kicks. Kenichi managed to dodge a few and block the rest before unleashing a yamisuki after trying to put a stop to Miu's footwork. Miu barely had enough time to jump back before the blow could do any serious harm.

Taking a breath, Miu smiled. "Wow, I can finally try some serious sparring with Kenichi!"

"Heh, what do you think of my progress?" Kenichi gloated until Miu's words actually sunk in. "Wait, are you saying you haven't taken me seriously until now?" he whined.

"That's not it," Miu said to try and calm him down, but Kenichi could see right through it.

"Argghh, if this goes on, she'll never see me as a man! Fine, it's time I use that ruysui seikuken I learned during the tournament," Kenichi muttered. Slowly, he set up his stance, taking in slow breaths as he recalled what he had learned on how to pull it off. As soon as he was ready, he peered right into Miu's eyes, but instead he found himself just admiring her beauty. Ogling her, Kenichi didn't sense the kick coming straight at his face, ending the spar.

Running right after that to find the Elder, Kenichi wasted no time in complaining. "Elder, the ruysui seikuken doesn't work at all!"

The Elder sat before, sweat dropping at Kenichi's bloodied face from the kick. "But this is one of my greatest techniques. I have refused a lot of request from masters all over the world to teach them," he tried to reason.

Kenichi seemed to ignore what the Elder just said. "Even if it's just looking into Miu's eyes and trying to figure out her thoughts, I don't know what a girl her age might be thinking!"

"No I didn't tell you to go that deep. You only need to read out the pattern of their moves and-," the Elder began to say, but was cut off by Kenichi running away, crying about how useless the move was for not working on Miu.

His crying was cut short when Akisame tripped him. "Calm down. You silly little boy." Helping Kenichi up and decided it was time for him to talk with Kenichi. Taking him aside to his room, Akisame picked up his guitar. "So... why are you so impatient, Kenichi-kun?"

Kenichi let out a deep sigh before answering. "I've been living in Ryozanpaku for one year now, but the more experience I gain, the less I feel I can reach Miu. She's like a big sister always protecting me! I already made a promise that I would protect her! I have the impression that one day, I might lose her forever and then I won't be able to protect her. If that's the case, should I have let the other guy protect her from the start?"

Akisame took this time to play a few notes on his guitar. "You understand that boy's feelings now. It is true that Miu has grown up in a world of martial arts... it's like she's been raised by martial arts! But you may not have noticed, but she has changed a lot in this year."

Kenichi was curious about Akisame's last words, but Miu took that moment to enter the room before he could think about it. "Kenichi, we promised that whoever loses skins the potatoes, right? I'll be waiting for you."

Kenichi didn't know what to say, but she took off before he could respond. Akisame chuckled. "She has so many expressions on her face ever since you entered Ryozanpaku." Kenichi looked happy at his words, but Akisame quickly crushed that happiness of his with what he said next. "By the way, if you're interested in her world... I mean the world of martial arts... we'll take you to a nice place."

"Oh, you already told him?" Sakaki said, him and Apachai coming up right behind Kenichi. Kenichi was practically having a heart attack as his masters' eyes all glowed ominiously.

"Wait up, he hasn't told me anything yet! Where are we heading to?" Kenichi frantically yelled.

"Che, haven't we done this before? Visiting a different world..." Kenichi's confused expression was all it took for Sakaki to continue with what he was saying. "Of course, I'm referring to the underground world of the mafia!"

Kenichi, quickly going over the number of times he could've died when he went with Sakaki to hunt down an assassin, wasted no time in taking off. Unfortunately for him, he didn't get far before Shigure captured him. Unceremoniously thrown into the side cart attached to Sakaki's motorcycle, Akisame explained the situation. "To make it short, we've been hired as bodyguards for some politicians. But the one trying to assassinate him is a bit of a problem."

"Problem?" Kenichi asked nervously. If Akisame considered something to be a problem, then Kenichi knew it had to be bad.

"One of the shadow nine fists. Alexander Gaidar..." Akisame replied.

"Ah! I remember, that man is Boris Ivanov's master!"

"Yes. This time, Sakaki and I are both going," Akisame said as Sakaki stood alongside him. Kenichi was shocked by that. If both were going then this Alexander must be strong. "It's just for safety purposes. If one of us dies, the other one is responsible for protecting the target and you."

"Eh, dies?" Kenichi was worried now.

"You heard me. Because it's one of the shadow nine fists even for us, we need to be prepared for the worst case! This is the world of real martial arts!" Akisame told Kenichi.

Sakaki laughed. "You have to witness a fight between masters with your own eyes! To be honest, this is the world Miu has been growing up in since her birth!"

At those words, all traces of fear left Kenichi and instead he wore a serious expression on his face. He hopped out of the side cart. "Wait a moment, I have to get something." He went back to his room, Shigure following him to make sure he doesn't run away. "Here it is..." he muttered as he pulled out the duel emblem that Boris had given him during their first encounter.

Smiling faintly, Shigure cut the ropes binding Kenichi with a swift swipe of her katana. Kenichi made his way back outside and strapped himself in. "We're heading out!" Sakaki said as Kenichi adjusted himself in his seat while Akisame sat on the back of the motorcycle.

A little later, on the other side of the city, Masataka was sighing. He felt like he's been doing a lot of that lately. It was either because someone would mention Souichiro's name or it was because of the Juken Club members have at it with their antics. Regardless, he was feeling a bit worn out from having to play the role of peacekeeper between Maya and Kagesada. It was as if the longer they stayed in this town, the more Kagesada tried to piss Maya off, something he does with surprising effectiveness.

Masataka, having felt that it was time for Bob or Aya to try and keep things calm, slipped out and so here he was. Taking a quick glance back at the hotel they were staying at, he could faintly hear Maya hitting Kagesada hard, followed by the poor guy's scream. Chuckling nervously at how painful the hit sounded, Masataka had walked off.

And so now, here he was wandering the streets like an idiot. He had walked a considerable distance before gazing off and by the time he regained his focus, he was lost. "Why me?" he asked himself. It seemed as if anything remotely bad - at least to him, while it was amusing to others - happened to him and him alone. Just like the time Bob accidently struck Masataka in the groin and pulled down his pants. That had been a painful experience for him, both physically and mentally as Chiaki had been there and she had laughed at the sight.

Sulking at the memory, Masataka paid no heed to where he was going, figuring that he wouldn't be finding his way back to the hotel for a while now. If he didn't have his head down, he would've noticed the pole. Walking right into it, Masataka yelled slightly in pain as the pole had hit the very top of his head. Rubbing the sore spot, he cursed. "Damn it, got lost in my thoughts," he muttered.

He was snapped out of the moment as he heard sounds coming from somewhere nearby. He looked around, but saw nothing out of the ordinary that could account for what he was hearing. Masataka paused as he heard the sounds again, this time he could clearly tell that it was yelling. It seemed to be nearby too.

Masataka looked up at the building that he was by and saw that it was still incomplete, the upper levels still in need of walls and the likes. More yelling. Masataka, having gotten closer to the building, now knew that the yells were coming from this place. As he got closer, he saw people up on a flight of stairs. He couldn't make out any facial features or anything; they were too high up for that.

However, Masataka recognized that whoever they were, they were martial artists. That much he was certain about as he faintly saw one of them take out a few of the others with a few swift moves.

Masataka twitched a bit as he could clearly hear the people hit the ground hard; the one that took them down was evidently a skilled fighter. But despite this, Masataka wasn't one to stand for something like this and he broke off into a run towards the stairs. He felt that the guy attacking the group needed to be taught a little lesson.

Finally done! Ah man, so sorry for the long wait. Like I said at the start of the chapter, fieldwork is a major pain. If not for that, my life would be much less stressful and I'd have more time on my hands to get my fics done. Can't wait for fieldwork to be done; I'm already ready to throw myself a little party when it does end.

Hope you enjoyed the chapter and please review!


	6. Chapter 6

Yes, I have finally graduated from high school! I never knew that I could feel this damn good about something! And now I have plenty of free time until college to get some chapters done for this fic and for my Devil Apocalypse fic.

Sorry for the long update, but I'm sure you can imagine how much of a hassle one could be in near graduation and all, but now that it's over with, I'll be able to get chapters out a bit quicker provided nothing really major comes up.

Here's the next chapter. Hope you enjoy.

Chapter 6

Masataka honestly didn't know what to make of the situation that he was about to land himself in. He's just been walking aimlessly around the city and now here he was rushing to some stairs at a construction site to teach some punk a lesson for beating down others. He needed to test his mechanical hand a bit anyway.

Rushing at full speed, Masataka ran towards the stairs, but rather than simply run up the steps, he jumped as high as he could, clearing nearly a dozen feet. Landing roughly on the set of steps nearest to him, Masataka quickly regained his balance and continued his ascent. He looked up briefly to get a better look at the fighters and was thrown for a bit of a loop by their appearance. The group that he had planned to rescue was teens around his age, but with gruff looks about them. It didn't help that they were dressed like commandos too.

However, the fighter that he also planned to take down seemed like a normal looking guy: brown hair and eyes, average height, etc. the only things that showed he was a fighter was his lean yet muscled build as well as the clothes that he wore, which Masataka was able to partially recognize as traditional clothing for certain martial arts.

Now this caused Masataka to pause briefly as he now looked on at the ongoing fight, taking note that the lone, average looking boy was merely knocking the commando guys aside to try and go up the stairs. The commandos though were relentless in their chase as they quickly got back up and tried to prevent the boy from going any further.

"Well, I'll just sort out all of this later," Masataka muttered to himself, still a bit confused by the situation the guys were in; nowadays, telling who the apparent bad guys are can be a bit hard, especially when a bunch of guys are attacking each other like mad dogs. He bolted up the stairs as fast as he could after that.

Meanwhile, Kenichi wasn't exactly having a good time. He was trying to make his way to the top of the unfinished building to save the kidnaped politician while Akisame dealt with Boris's master, but that was much easier said than done. Dodging a swift grab attempt from one of Boris's buddies, Kenichi responded with a well placed kick that connected with the guy's chin, knocking him into the others.

This caused them to fall down a few steps, but the small group was quick to recover and lunged at Kenichi again. Kenichi yelped, barely blocking a punch that one of them had thrown at him the instant he was within striking distance. The punch proved to be a bit of a blessing in disguise as its strength was enough to push him up the stairs faster.

Kenichi leapt back from them a bit and decided that it'd just be best to take them down instead of just trying to outrun them; it wasted too much time and that was something the poor politician woman was running out of.

Taking a stance against the three, Kenichi prepared for their next attack. He didn't have to wait too long for it as the nearest one moved in, aiming for his feet. Kenichi brought his foot up to avoid being grabbed and with his other foot, kicked his opponent hard in the face. However, just as he flew back from the hit, his other buddy took the opportunity to strike Kenichi in the gut, depriving him of air.

Kenichi could only stagger after that, but not for very long when the same guy grabbed him in a choke hold. This action immediately triggered something in Kenichi, who, with a yell, quickly broke out of the hold and performed an over the shoulder take down on the poor guy.

"On second thought, I'll stick with moving," he muttered and decided that this clash had shown him that fighting them would just take up more time. He needed to focus on catching up with Boris. Turning around to continue his ascent, Kenichi prepared for the one still standing to make a move against him, but was surprised when he heard a thud from behind him.

Spinning around to see what just happened, Kenichi's eyes widened as he saw a boy around his age with brown hair standing over the last guy, said person on the ground unconscious. However, the boy's impressively quick takedown was ignored by Kenichi who was thinking of something.

"How did this guy show up without me noticing?" he thought, feeling a bit scared. It didn't really help that the guy now looked at him with stern eyes. "Oh damn, he's gonna attack me."

As Kenichi had these thoughts, Masataka was looking at him, calming himself down. He noted how Kenichi shook just a bit. "Damn it, I was hoping he could tell me just what the hell is going on, but not if he ends up being nervous around me," he thought.

Putting on a more concerned expression, Masataka took a single step towards Kenichi. "Hey there. Look, I know this is a strange situation, but-," he didn't finish as Kenichi suddenly launched a yamisuki at him.

Masataka was taken aback by the speed of the attack and was barely able to block it. "Hey, what the hell?" he nearly yelled, but Kenichi responded with a strike to the chest. Masataka sidestepped the blow and moved up the stairs, spinning around to try and get behind Kenichi.

As soon as he did get behind him, Kenichi tried to hit him with an elbow strike to the stomach, but Masataka sucked in his gut enough to avoid, pulling back a bit in case. "Okay, calm down!"

Kenichi responded to him this time. "No way! How do I know you're not part of YOMI and that this is a trap?" he shot back. The brief tussle with Boris's commandos just moments ago left him with a bit of an adrenaline rush, which wasn't exactly helping with his reasoning abilities right now.

"What's YOMI?" Masataka said, blocking yet another hit, this one being a kick. Tired of just blocking, Masataka opted for an attack, feeling that maybe the guy would calm down after getting some sense pounded into him.

His palm shot out fast, slamming into Kenichi with amazing power behind it. Kenichi lost his breath for the second time so far that night and reeled back from the hit. Masataka took the several seconds that was now afforded to him to think about Kenichi's fighting style or at least what he's seen of it so far.

"He seems to be a karate practitioner and a good one at that, but he's still far from being truly great," he reasoned.

Launching a kick at Kenichi, Masataka was surprised when Kenichi recovered from the previous attack and seemed to lunge forward, grabbing his leg in a surprisingly strong hold while practically slamming his head into Masataka's stomach. His eyes widened as he vaguely recognized that counter as a kenpo move.

Slamming an elbow into Kenichi's exposed back, Masataka pulled away as soon as he was free. But Kenichi was able to move in on him, recovering faster than before and grabbed his opponent's arm, knocking Masataka's legs out from under him a bit to throw him. Masataka couldn't help but feel truly shocked now; his opponent seemed to know three martial arts. That was something that he certainly wasn't expecting from someone that seemed so ordinary.

Those were the last words he thought before finding himself airborne and rapidly descending. Snapping out of his thoughts, Masataka flipped in mid air, landing shakily on the stairs. He cursed; construction workers really need to come up with more stable stairs next time.

Looking up the steps, he saw Kenichi make a mad dash up the stairs. "Where is he going?" he muttered. Despite the guy attacking him, Masataka couldn't help but feel that perhaps it would be wise for him to help Kenichi. Running up the steps as fast as he could, it wasn't very long before he had caught up with Kenichi.

"Oh damn, he's right on my tail!" Kenichi thought. Turning to face Masataka, the first thing he saw was something metallic. It was Masataka's mechanical hand and it struck Kenichi hard in the face as he struck Kenichi with one of his strongest attacks, the shinirikugo taihotenshi tsuhaiken. However, the Ki that blast forth from his palm past harmlessly through Kenichi's head and struck an unfinished wall nearby. The Ki behind the move was great enough that the wall was easily destroyed, pieces of debris flying high into the air.

Masataka looked serious on the outside, but in his mind, he was grinning a bit. He was thankful to Tsumuji for adjusting his mechanical hand to a level that felt much more like his real hand otherwise he might not have been able to avoid passing his Ki through Kenichi and that would've made things pretty bad; the human body could only take so much force slamming into it before it damn near exploded.

Kenichi stood where he was, scared stiff. While he didn't actually see the result of Masataka's technique, the little explosion it caused was more than enough to tell him that he could have easily died had Masataka chosen to actually hit him with it.

Masataka glared at him before his expression softened. "You ready to calm down yet?" he asked curtly.

Kenichi stiffened a bit, wanting to attempt an attack, but gave in to Masataka's indirect command. His shoulders slouching, Kenichi spoke. "Alright, I'm calm now."

Masataka looked into his eyes to make sure he wasn't lying before lowering his hand and assuming a calmer stance. "Okay. Now tell me: just what is going on here?"

Kenichi looked at him, a bit confused. "Aren't you here to help your buddies or something?"

Now Masataka looked confused. "Buddies? Who are you talking about? Those teenaged commandos?" When Kenichi nodded, he continued. "I don't know those guys at all!" he nearly yelled.

Kenichi was now stumped; the guy didn't appear to be a member of YOMI after all. "O-oh, I see." They both fell silent after that. "Well, sorry for attacking you," Kenichi said sheepishly, scratching the back of his head in the process.

Masataka wanted to yell at him, just so that he could feel a bit better for having been attacked, but he didn't; he was curious about these YOMI guys that Kenichi mentioned. "Who or what is YOMI?" he asked.

At his words, Kenichi suddenly remembered why he was in such a hurry. "Oh damn! I have to catch up with Boris!" he cried before turning around and taking off.

Masataka was a bit stunned by his sudden outburst, but he didn't let that stop him from chasing after Kenichi up the stairs. "Whoa, slow down! What is going on?"

Without stopping or even slowing down, Kenichi answered him. "Those guys's master is about to kill someone!"

Those words were all it took to get Masataka to stop with his questions. His expression grew serious and he fell silent, feeling that Kenichi could not have been lying for he doubted he could given the way he seems to work. Picking up the pace, Masataka was quickly catching up with Kenichi and even began to surpass his speed just a bit.

Kenichi was surprised by how fast Masataka was, but he quickly pushed any thoughts he now began to have aside so that he could focus on keeping up. He just hoped that they could make it in time.

Little did they know, Boris had been watching them the whole time. Earlier when his comrades were able to stall Kenichi long enough to give him a head start, he eventually came to a stop and whipped out a pair of binoculars. Watching from high above them, he witnessed Kenichi battling his fellow commandos, the mysterious newcomer, the brief clash between said person and Kenichi, and now watched as they began to make their way to him.

Although he would not say so aloud right now, Boris was rather shocked at how fast the newcomer was able to gain an upperhand against Kenichi. That technique he used too certainly had him intrigued and a bit afraid; that move could very well have killed Kenichi so he had no doubt that it could kill him just as easily.

And even though the two were now near him, Boris could not find it in himself to carry on his mission. He knew that this decision would certainly yield bad results for him later on, but no matter how strong his desire to continue his master's mission was, his desire for a rematch with Kenichi was stronger. Even if the stranger joined in on the fight, Boris was still resolved to fight with all he has until he either beats Kenichi or dies trying.

He snapped out of his thoughts when he heard footsteps. They were close now, real close. No sooner than he turned to face the stairs did Kenichi and Masataka appear in sight. Kenichi's eyes widened as he came to a stop. Masataka did likewise as soon as he saw Boris. "This is one of those YOMI guys?" he asked.

Kenichi nodded. "Boris!" he said, directly to said person, "didn't think you'd stop for us."

Boris remained silent for a moment. Masataka and Kenichi both winced as they could now hear a major fight going on further above them; Masataka figured that it must be those masters that Kenichi had quickly told him about on the way up just now. The masters were certainly powerful, if the Ki he could feel and the attacks he could hear were anything to judge by.

He focused back on Boris when he spoke. "My mission is to reach the top and dispose of the woman while my master fights. That is the mission he gave me. And his orders are absolute," he said as monotonously as a robot. "However... for reasons I can't comprehend, Shirahama Kenichi, I really want to fight you."

Kenichi looked at Boris in surprise while Masataka merely took in his words. "Kenichi-san," he whispered.

Kenichi stiffened a bit. "How did you know my name?" he whispered back, just realizing that he never told him his name or vice versa.

Masataka had to resist laughing a bit; that one sentence, combined with the look on Kenichi's face lightened the tension he felt just a bit. "He did just say your name."

"Oh," was Kenichi's response.

"Anyway, I don't still fully comprehend what is really going on, but right now all I need to know is that someone is in danger right?" Masataka asked. Kenichi nodded slightly. "Alright. I take it by the look in your eyes that this is a fight you really want, so I'll go ahead and try to save that woman."

Kenichi nodded. "Alright." He took his ruysui seikuken stance.

This move caused Boris to let out all the Ki he could muster. Kenichi didn't flinch at it, having felt it before. Masataka was taken by surprise; he didn't expect such an amount of Ki from this commando guy, but he shrugged it off fast. He had felt stronger and more terrifying Ki from his brother and Maya on their bad days so Boris's Ki was nothing in comparison.

He took this moment that Boris was occupied to charge up the stairs at top speed. Now Boris and Kenichi were alone, ready to go at it. This was something that Boris didn't let go to waste. He rushed at Kenichi at full speed, his fist rocketing towards him at an amazing speed for a disciple.

However, Kenichi easily saw it coming thanks to his rusui seikuken and countered the punch with several strikes to Boris's chest and stomach. Boris yelled out in pain as he flew back just a bit. "His strike are even stronger than last time!" he muttered under his breath as he unconsciously rubbed his stomach, checking to see if anything had been broken.

"Give it up Boris! There is a big gap in strength between us now!" Kenichi said, feeling good that he was able to surprise Boris with is progress.

That good feeling of his went away when Boris once more charged at him. Kenichi's hands moved towards Boris in an attempt to hit him and knock him down, but Boris ducked right underneath them, the fingers just barely hitting his shoulders. Kenichi was about to curse when Boris now stood right in front and grabbed the front of shirt with both hands. Before Kenichi knew it, Boris had performed a move known as northern tornado spin, Boris moving in a violent circle that damaged Kenichi due to the proximity of his body.

Boris wasn't done yet and flipped Kenichi over, placing his elbows right over his throat in an attempt to strangle him. "Ever since our last fight I have followed my master everywhere to test my strength! Listen, Shirahama! To progress is the quality of a good disciple and that is why making progress is natural to us!"

Kenichi wasn't exactly listening to his words, instead opting to take the time Boris spent talking to set up the takusuosho Kensei had taught him. Placing his right hand under Boris's chin, he then used his left one to strike his right elbow. This forced his right hand to hit Boris with the force of both hands, effectively blowing him back up the stairs.

Boris had barely been able to recover after going up several steps before Kenichi leapt right in front of him and hit him square in the jaw with a well placed roundhouse kick just as Boris was about to stand up.

Boris slammed into a nearby rail, yelling just a bit in pain from the sudden crash. Kenichi now charged at him, but his opponent took a step back in time for Kenichi's punch to miss its marks, striking the rail instead, denting rather badly. However, this had hurt Kenichi's hand as he had not practiced punching steel before and the brief second he took to groan from the pain was a second he had let gone to waste as he once again found himself in a hold by Boris.

Fortunately, Boris had yet to fully get him in said hold so Kenichi still had some room to maneuver a bit and slammed an elbow into Boris's stomach, knocking him off him. But Boris, as Kenichi well knew, was a persistent person and this showed when he lunged right at Ryozanpaku's disciple, knocking them both down the steps. They crashed and tumbled down the stairs for some odd seconds before finally stopping. Letting out groans, both got right back up and eyed each other. They could tell just by the looks in each others' eyes that this fight was going to be quite brutal.

Meanwhile, Masataka had finally reached the top. Upon his arrival, he immediately had to cover his eyes as a large amount of dust from the nearby construction tools blew right into his face. It didn't take long for it to stop, but when it did, Masataka was greeted with a most amazing sight. Right before him in midair were two masters, both of whom he couldn't recognize, exchanging blows at such speeds that Masataka felt a bit grateful just to see some of the strikes.

Now that he was focused on the battle, he could now feel the Ki radiating from the two combatants and the Kis scared him just a bit; the only person with more Ki than them was Souichiro and that was something that definitely threw him for a loop.

Both masters jumped back from the midair exchange and onto the metal pillars. One of them with long blonde hair that Masataka assumed to be Boris's master if looks were anything to judge by grabbed hold of a large, tied pile of metal beams and launched them with amazing ferocity at the other master. However, the beams missed their mark and sailed past their target. When they began to swing back, the other master, one dressed in traditional jujitsu clothes, grabbed them and threw them right back at his opponent.

The beams crashed with devastating force into the metal pillars, shaking them a bit and making Masataka jump back a bit to avoid some of the debris. Looking right in front of him was the long haired master, having dodged the incoming attack, only to look up and see several of the beams flying right at him.

The beams struck the floor and formed a barrier of sorts around the master, meant to keep him contained. "Whoa," Masataka muttered. He certainly hadn't been expecting something like this. If this hadn't blown his mind though, then what happened next did as the trapped master chopped one of the beams and before he knew it, Masataka was staring at an angel figure made out of the beams, now bent to more resemble wire. "What the hell?" he yelled, "how did he do that?"

His question wasn't answered nor did he expect one, but he sure wasn't expecting the long haired master to pick up his just made creation and throw it at the jujitsu master, who merely struck it and began to manipulate the wires until they formed the figure of a buddha.

Masataka's mouth practically hit the floor. "Just what kind of fight is this?" he thought. He's seen plenty of crazy things before like the powers of the red feathers or something a bit more normal like Maya splitting a boulder in two with a stick. Hell, Souichiro alone could put the feats of Maya and the red feathers to shame with his moves, but this battle of steel and art was just ridiculous.

The wires of the newest creation then broke apart and actually seemed to wrap themselves around the long haired master. This didn't really seem to stop though as he easily broke free and sped towards his enemy, fully intent on killing him. What occurred next stunned Masataka. The long haired master threw a powerful punch at the jujitsu one only for his fist to be caught at the very last second. However, this proved to be what the long haired master wanted as he immediately moved in, twisting the very same arm that was being held onto to slam his elbow right into his opponent's face. That wasn't the end of it as he then picked up his artistically talented foe and spun him around, launching punch after punch at him.

Much to not just the long haired master's and Masataka's surprised, the jujitsu master was able to block all of the blows with his feet. "Just what are they?" Masataka asked himself, shaking at the sheer level of skill being demonstrated before him. This was more than he had ever would've thought he'd live to see.

The jujitsu master threw the other one off of him only to be grabbed and thrown himself. However, he expected as much and responded with a counter throw of his own. This was then met with another counter throw then another and another. It eventually led to nothing but one big battle of counter throws.

Masataka couldn't even begin to form words in his mind; this was just too much for him to grasp. He knew that there were those out there that far exceeded any other martial artists, Souichiro being an example of this, but he never thought he'd see two such fighters going at it like this! He was snapped out of his thoughts as the jujitsu master seemed to be looking at him just then. Then, faster than what a normal person could ever see, the master made a pointing gesture to something before focusing back on his current situation.

"What did he just point...?" Masataka looked in the direction he pointed to and saw the woman that Kenichi had mentioned, lying unconscious on a platform up above. "Oh right!" he thought before leaping to the lowest metal pillar he could see before leaping to another one. He felt stupid; he had been so captivated by the battle that he had forgotten why he was up here.

He suddenly felt strange as if someone was watching him. Sparing a glance back at the masters, he saw the long haired master eyeing him intently before he began to yell for Boris. Masataka suppressed a relieved sigh as both Boris and the master were too occupied to be able to stop him.

Masataka kept at it, leaping from pillar to pillar until he was so close to the woman that he could damn near taste it. However, the noise of the fight below him stopped. Normally, he wouldn't have bothered to look back, but given the power of the two combatants, he did, just this once. This proved to be a mistake on his part as he saw just in time a blur speed right past him. "What?" he yelled.

Looking back up, the long haired master had actually been able to get past his opponent and snatch the woman. It was at this time the woman woke up. She looked ready to scream after shaking off the grogginess, but alas, that did not occur as the master then hurled her right off the building. "No!" Masataka yelled.

In a desperate attempt to save her, he jumped right into the air after her. The leap was enough to get close enough to grab her, but in his haste, Masataka had no way of getting back on the building; he was in midair after all.

However, much to his great relief, a rope was tossed out to him. Grabbing hold of it without a second thought, Masataka found himself holding on to it for dear life when he felt a powerful tug at the rope. Crying out from the sudden and powerful pull, he slammed into the floor, doing his best to cover the woman in the process. "Owww," he muttered.

"Heh, that was pretty dangerous there." The voice caused for Masataka to snap his head up to look at who said it. His eyes went a bit wide as he saw a very muscular man approaching him, a grin on his face.

Lending a hand to Masataka, the man helped him up. "Sakaki shisho!" Masataka turned around to see Kenichi practically crawling up the stairs nearby, looking pretty roughed up.

"Kenichi-san?" Masataka asked, "what happened with your fight?"

Kenichi sheepishly rubbed the back of his head. "Well, at first, I was sorta winning before Boris heard his master calling for him and took off." He pointed up and Masataka followed his finger until he noticed a helicopter.

"How the hell did I not see that?" he thought, sweatdropping as it seemed to have been there for some time now. But he shoved that pointless thought aside as he looked closely and saw Boris and his master board the helicopter, which then took off once the door to it closed with an audible slam.

"Heh, look at him run. The guy fails once during his little mission and now he's taking off like a sore loser," Sakaki said. He then turned to face Masataka. "By the way, who the hell are you kid?"

Masataka was taken by surprise, having been focusing on the chopper. "M-Masataka. Takayanagi Masataka."

Sakaki scratched his chin. "Takayanagi? Could've sworn I heard that name before. But anyway..." He trailed off as he smashed a fist on top of Masataka's head. Masataka, having not seen that coming, was nearly knocked unconscious by the blow, seeing nothing but stars as he futilely tried to regain his senses. Kenichi screamed comically like he usually does when about to be trained by his masters, only this time he did so out of concern for his recently made ally.

"That was pretty damn reckless of you kid! You could've died!" Sakaki yelled at him.

As Masataka now was more or less back to normal, rubbing his head, he noticed the jujitsu master come down the steps. "Ah, Akisame sensei!" Kenichi said.

Akisame seemed to ignore Kenichi. "It was certainly brave what you did, Masataka-kun," he said, having heard Masataka introduce himself, "however you don't have to throw your life away for bravery."

"R-right," Masataka responded, still nursing his new injury. They were silent as he stopped rubbing his head. Then his eyes snapped open as he registered their first names. "Wait... Sakaki as in Shio Sakaki, the 100 dan brawler? And Akisame as in Koetsuji Akisame?" Masataka nearly cried.

The two in question looked at him a bit confused. "Yes, that is us," Akisame answered.

Masataka gapped like a fish. He had heard of them and their exploits as martial artists as he grew up. They were practically legendary among other martial artists! To be able to meet them, even in a situation such as this was like something out of a dream.

Bowing to them, Masataka spoke in a very serious tone of voice. "It's an honor to meet you," he said.

They looked at him in surprise before they began to laugh at his reaction to their identities. "Well," Akisame began, "back to what I was saying, it was admirable of you to help, but from now on, try not to pull too many stunts like that." he smiled at Masataka, who merely stood straight back up, looking sheepish.

"And although I did not see your fight Kenichi-kun, I'm certain you did your part in clearing a path for Masataka-kun to get up here. You did well," Akisame said.

Kenichi seemed to bask in the compliment; it meant a lot coming from Akisame, especially considering the insane training regimes he and the other masters come up with. "Thank you, sensei!"

Sakaki laughed. "Well, since things turned out alright in the end, we'll treat you guys to some ramen. It's on us."

Masataka looked quite grateful; he had forgotten to eat earlier in the day and he had just now realized how hungry he was. "Thanks. You're really kind."

"But first off," Akisame said, looking a bit more serious.

"Yes?" Masataka and Kenichi both said, looking confused.

"We should really be taking the congresswoman back to her room. I'm sure she's had quite a night," Akisame told them, pointing to the woman on the floor, having fainted from the shock of being thrown from so high up.

"Ah..." Masataka and Kenichi both responded. This and the late night ramen dinner that followed afterwards concluded the eventful night for them.

Phew, that took a while. Didn't think I'd take this long. But hey, I got it done and that's what matters! Once again I do apologize for the long wait and do hope that this chapter does make up for it a bit.

And in some time, I'll be working on the next chapter to my other fic and then when that chapter is done, I'll be focusing on the next chapter for this one. However, after that, I'll be putting this fic on hold for some time so that I could get the other fic done since I have about eight or so more chapters planned for it, possibly more depending on how the planned chapters I have turn out. I'm sorry if this disappoints any of you, but rest assured that I am not giving this fic up. I'll just be updating a lot later after the next chapter.

Anyways, thank you so much to kamarul.e and HuntersShadow for reviewing. I hope that you continue to review because... well, you're the only ones so far that have and I am truly grateful for that. I also hope that you continue to enjoy this fic too.

To anyone and everyone else reading this fic though, I hope that you enjoyed it and please leave a review.


	7. Chapter 7

Hey there guys, sure hope that you've all been enjoying my fic so far. Judging from the reviews left though as well as all of you who have favorited this fic, I'd say you are and for that I'm very grateful to all of you. I hope that you continue to enjoy this fic.

Yeah, not much to say right now about myself other than that I'm merely enjoying my summer until college starts. I pray that when it does though, the workload doesn't take up too much time as I would like to update my fics at a decent rate. Wish me luck when the semester starts.

NOTE: THIS WILL BE THE LAST CHAPTER I'M DOING FOR THIS FIC FOR A WHILE. AFTER THIS CHAPTER, I INTEND TO WORK ON MY OTHER FIC, DEVIL APOCALYPSE, UNTIL IT'S COMPLETED AND ONCE THAT IS DONE I WILL RETURN TO WORKING ON THIS FIC. JUST LETTING YOU GUYS KNOW NOW IN CASE YOU WONDER WHY IT'S TAKING ME SO LONG TO UPDATE THIS FIC.

Chapter 7

Masataka let out a yawn as he woke up. It's already morning, a fact that didn't surprise him as he had stayed out rather late last night thanks to Kenichi's masters, Sakaki and Akisame, taking them out to eat some ramen at a small, all night long restaurant. In fact, he had only gotten back to the hotel just a few hours ago, having spent most of the night getting to talk to the two masters, something that he felt like boasting about to the others. After all, it's not every day that he gets to meet two great martial artists known throughout the martial arts world.

Stretching, he lazily got out of bed, trying to stifle the yawn he was still letting out. "What a night..." he muttered, replaying the events that led up to him meeting Sakaki and Akisame.

Masataka was more than intrigued by YOMI and after the little conversation he had regarding them with Kenichi and the masters last night over ramen, he now felt that he and the rest of the Juken Club should maybe try to lend a hand. While it wasn't their fight and there really was no reason to get involved and also that in getting involved, their search for Souichiro may very well be delayed, Masataka felt that it would be a good thing to get involved, if only for the sake of stopping whatever YOMI has planned. That and he was interested in the little bit of info he had gotten from Kenichi regarding a newcomer to YOMI. However, it wasn't much to go on as Kenichi was only able to tell him that the newcomer was more powerful than anyone else in YOMI he's encountered so far; he didn't get a chance to tell Masataka how the guy looked like or what his name was for his masters had cut him off, paying for the ramen and taking Kenichi home, saying that it was late, but not before giving Masataka directions back to his hotel.

Masataka was startled out of his thoughts by a loud snore. Looking over to the other bed in the room, he saw Bob tossing and turning in his sleep rather violently, the bed being an absolute mess as a result. He sighed. While the Juken Club was on a bit of a tight budget, he wondered if him being partnered with Bob for one room was a good thing; he had found it hard to get to sleep because of the snoring. "What is he, a bear?" he muttered as Bob let out his loudest snore yet.

Going through his daily routine, Masataka soon found himself putting on his clothes and about to leave to get breakfast, figuring that Bob will wake up on his own later unless Maya has him come back to wake him up. He shivered as he thought of Maya. Before he went out for his walk yesterday, he had only told her that he would be out for a while and nothing. He didn't elaborate or anything like that, he didn't even tell her how long he'd be gone. Chances are that she would be rather annoyed with him for not only coming back so late to the hotel, but also for not telling her what had happened as soon as he returned.

For a few moments, Masataka pondered the idea of just telling her right now about the whole thing or just putting it off until later on today when a more opportune time came up. However, he quickly realized that if he went with the later option, Maya would be even angrier than she would be if he had told her sooner. This thought made him decide to go with the lesser of the two evils and just go to tell her now. He just prayed that she was still sleepy enough that she would miss hitting his head when she pulled out her sword or something.

While Masataka was getting ready to do this, Kenichi was currently at school, more specifically in gym class. "Phew... yesterday was horrible," he commented aloud with a sigh.

"I understand how you feel," Miu said, standing next to him as she saw Tirawit, Rachel, and Ethan nearby. They seemed to act normally enough, but she thought it best to watch them in case they try anything now.

Kenichi was more focused on watching Boris sweeping the floors. It amazed him at how the guy still showed up for school as eager as always to follow the teachers' orders despite what happened yesterday. "I can believe he's here!" he exclaimed, having to let out his amazement in some way.

Miu giggled. "The classes do join together when we participate in the sports lessons," she pointed out, doing a few stretches.

"That's not what I meant! He's the one I fought with to a near death!" Kenichi yelled, taking Miu by surprise so badly she nearly lost her balance. "To think that the disciple of a serial killer dares to come to school regularly..."

"Calm down Kenichi!" Kenichi turned to see Nijima approaching him. Nijima gave him his signature smirk. "This is my chance to investigate them and I intend to use Hermit's sources as well for this," he said. He especially planned to do a bit more digging into Souichiro, try and find out some things about him, but this time he was going to do that from a good distance away; he has no intention of trying to get fried by lightning.

"Anyways, after school, we'll be holding a Shinpaku Alliance captain's meeting. This is no longer a fight for you alone, Kenichi." He turned to look around the gymnasium.

"What do you mean by that?" Kenichi asked.

"Meet us and you'll understand," Nijima told him. He intended to tell them about his little near death experience with Souchiro. He figured it's best to let them know just what exactly they could be going up against. He would've told Kenichi then and there about it, but Souichiro was off to the sidelines, dressed in the same clothes he's been wearing for a while now and Nijima didn't want to test his hearing again.

"Don't let me down! And bring Miu with you too!" Nijima said before taking off, Miu jumping slightly in joy at being invited along for the meeting while Kenichi had a more serious expression on his face.

They both went through the rest of their classes without anything worth noting and as soon as school let out for the day, Kenichi found himself nearly being dragged by Miu to the Shinpaku meeting. "We're not going to some kind of party, you know?" Kenichi said with a smile.

"Ah, but still I'm very happy! It's my first time being invited to your secret base!" Miu said.

At her words, Kenichi thought back to the last time she had ever come to the 'secret base' as she put it. He couldn't recall her ever coming at all except when Li Raichi and her father had attacked. He gasped at that thought, having realized that up until now, Miu has never seemed to be invited to any sort of meeting. "Finally I can take part in something," Miu said, causing for Kenichi to start comically crying for not having invited her before.

A little while later, they arrived at the address only to be greeted with an unusual sight: construction. "What is this?" Kenichi nearly yelled.

"Looks like an official building," Miu mused.

Off to the front of the currently-under-construction building was Nijima directing men around. "What did you do this time?" Kenichi cried as he suddenly went up to Nijima and grabbed ahold of him.

"Calm down," Nijima said, gently pushing Kenichi away, "we rented this building from Kisara's dad," he explained as he began to make his way towards the entrance of the building, Kenichi and Miu following his lead.

"How?" Kenichi asked.

"Oh, I just told him we were trying to save her from the world of delinquents.. Sieg then financed this and I completely restored the building!" Nijima replied with pride.

"I underestimated this guy," Kenichi muttered under his breath.

"Here, take a look!" Nijima said gleefully, opening the door to a nearby room and walking in. Kenichi followed right behind him and was greeted with the sight of new training equipment, all of it of a much higher quality than what the Shinpaku Alliance had before.

"Wow!" Kenichi had to admit that he was seriously impressed. He had no doubt that the equipment and restoration of this building must have cost fortune given how fast the workers outside were working.

He was snapped out of his slight stupor by a familiar voice. "You're late, Shirahama! I have other duties, you know!" Tanimoto yelled at him, coming from behind a corner of the room.

"Yo there, Natsu-chan," Kenichi said, trying to get Tanimoto irratated.

He wasn't disappointed. "Who the hell is Natsu-chan?" Tanimoto yelled.

Kenichi ignored his outburst. "Why don't you come closer?"

Tanimoto retreated further behind the corner. "Why do you care? Don't come any closer!"

Once again, Kenichi ignored his words and rounded the corner. His eyes widened at what he saw. Currently clamped around Tanimoto's right leg was his sister Honoka, who also apparently was biting Tanimoto on the lower part of his thigh. "Honoka?" he cried out. Miu didn't seem to share his surprise as she looked on at the sight with a smile.

Kenichi's surprise waned when he remembered something. "Eh? Weren't you supposed to visit the amusement park today?"

"Make her let go of me! I've tried everything!" Tanaimoto demanded.

"Let him go, Honoka," Kenichi said and that was all it took for his little sister to let go, her giving him an understanding nod in the process. Tanimoto looked at this in shock. "For a younger sister, her older brother's orders are absolute!" Kenichi explained as he patted Honoka on the head, him and Honoka enjoying the angry look on Tanimoto's face.

"Hey, this way. Everyone's waiting," Nijima said, having gone off somewhere, but now returning for them. He led them down the corrider and soon enough, Kenichi was greeted with the sight of Siegfired, Takeda, Ukita, Kisara, Freya, and Thor all waiting for them, waving to them. Gathering together, they all exchanged hellos and Nijima quickly gave Kenichi and Miu a few updates on some of them.

He started with saying how Kaname, otherwise known as Freya to Kenichi, was now a college student and was also teaching at her dojo. He then went on to tell them of how Siegfried, his real name being Hibiki, was now a second year at a music school and was preparing for a concert. And lastly, Nijima finished up with introducing Thor by his real name, Yuma, who is still the same as before, trying to make sumo recognized as a combat sport.

After giving these updates, Kenichi felt that he had ask Nijima something. "Okay then, are you ready to clear things up? Just what did you mean by this wasn't my fight anymore?"

Nijima lost the happy and devious look on his face he always has on and took on a more serious expression. "YOMI is now regarding the Shinpaku Alliance as part of Ryozanpaku," he answered.

"Eh? How's that possible?" Kenichi exclaimed.

"It's true. They even sent their invitation for us to join them," Kaname said.

Kisara scoffed as she remembered the visit that they payed to her. "They must be kidding. Now that we know their methods..."

"We're not going to join them no matter what!" Takeda finished for her.

"Eh? Wait, they didn't pay me any visits!" Ukita yelled out comically, but he was ignored.

"Shirahama Kenichi, this just means that we're destined to fight together!" Kaname said.

"I am prepared to give my life away to preserve the fate of this friendship!" Hibiki declared proudly in his usual sing-song voice.

Kenichi believed that he has never felt so happy; he had quite a bunch of friends, all of them willing to fight alongside him. However, Takeda spoke up and what he had to say made him nervous. "But have you noticed? That guy behind those men in black..."

Kisara nodded. "Yeah, a pretty frightening person..."

"A frightening person?" Kenichi asked.

Kaname responded. "Yes. To be honest, when you face him, your whole body starts to shake on its own!"

"Indeed. I can hear the rhythm of death from that person!" Hibiki stated. He looked directly at Kenichi before speaking again, this time doing so in a serious voice rather than speak how he normally does. "And he told each of us something." He then went on to explain how the man had introduced himself as Kajima Satomi, how he was the new leader of YOMI and how he offered them to join YOMI. However, he also said that if they refused, then they will die.

Kenichi gulped; that sure sounded like one terrifying guy. "Yeah, guy sounds scary," Nijima said, not sounding nervous at all.

They all looked at him, some of them looking surprised that he wasn't saying how he was going to try to get some info on the guy while others, such as Takeda and Ukita, seemed a bit annoyed. "Hey, what the hell, you damn alien? You could at least try to take this a bit more seriously," Kisara nearly yelled, beating Takeda to the punch.

"Oh, I trust you when you say he's a cary guy, but I think we should really be keeping on the lookout for someone else," Nijima calmly said back to her.

"And who would that be?" Kaname asked. Hibiki and Yuma looked curious too, wondering who he was talking about.

However, Kenichi and the others immediately knew who Nijima was talking about. "Nagi Souichiro," Kenichi said so low that it sounded like a whisper, but everyone still heard.

"Nagi Souichiro? Who's that?" Yuma asked.

"He's a new student at our school and he's also a new member of YOMI," Nijima explained with a simple statement.

"I see. Judging by the way you speak his name, I'd say that he's a powerful individual," Kaname reasoned.

"You have no idea," Kenichi muttered, shivering. However, Kaname heard him and at the sight of her somewhat confused look, he explained the day of the opening ceremony and how much Ki Souichiro had. Needless to say, by the end of his short tale, Kaname, Hibiki, and Yuma were both shocked and impressed by how powerful this new guy appeared to be.

"That's not all there is to know about him though," Nijima spoke up after Kenichi finished.

"Oh? You were able to get some info on the guy with those little alien tricks of your?" Ukita asked.

Nijima let out a big sigh before looking them all dead center in the eyes. This got them all to straighten up just a bit; whatever he was about say must really be serious. "Yes, I was able to get some info on him, but not much. Well, at least not enough to know what exactly he can do. But I do at least know a few things he's capable of."

After making this statement, he then launched himself into telling them of what he did after the opening ceremony, how he had stalked the guy and was unfortunately found out. Nijima watched them all widen their eyes in sheer shock as he told them how he had seen Souichiro bring down a lightning bolt. They seemed a bit nervous when he mentioned how Souichiro was able to easily keep up with him, them getting even more sowhen he actually put his speed on the same level as Shigure.

"N-Nijima, are you being serious?" Kenichi asked him.

Nijima nodded. "Dead serious. I know that it sounds impossible, but whatever this guy is, one thing is for sure: he isn't human."

Meanwhile, the person in question was at a park. Souichiro let out a sigh as he sat down. Observing the area, he noted that not many people were here, most likely due to him. "Figures. Wherever I go, people leave," he thought aloud. Even the birds that were flying around near the ground so playfully moments ago had gone, having being scared off by his Ki. Souichiro sighed once more. He would've gone back to where he had first been before, the place he had gone to after the opening ceremony, but it was currently closed off, repairs currently being made due to his use of lightning. He really didn't feel like going there anyway even if it was open since he didn't want the freaky alien guy to come back.

He hoped that maybe the guy had learned his lesson, that he wouldn't try to stalk him again, but if what he was told about him was true, then he'll most likely be seeing that alien again. Souchiro hoped that if he did, the damn punk would keep a good distance away if he tries it.

Souichiro would've continued on with this short, little train of thought, but he was suddenly overcome by a most familiar sensation, one that he had experienced on the bridge. He nearly doubled over on the bench, gripping his hurting head. It felt as if something was trying to crawl out of his skull. "Damn it, not again," he said, his voice showcasing the pain he was in.

He tried to stand, but nearly fell on his face as soon as he leaned forward. It was only due to sheer willpower that he was able to keep himself on his knees. Unlike the last time, where the pain only lasted for a moment, this time around, it last longer. Souichiro let out a short cry as the pain in his head became truly unbearable.

It wasn't until nearly five minutes have passed that the torment he was in began to subside. It was another few minutes before he was back to normal. "Ah... what the hell?" he growled out as he stood slowly, his balance waning a bit as he finally reached his full height.

Taking a few seconds to fully regain his balance and his senses, he looked around and saw that the bench he had been sitting was slightly scorched; he had apparently let out a bit of power during his little episode just now.

He shivered. This was the second time that he's had to endure such intense pain in his skull and he had no idea why. Souichiro knew that it had to be a result of Sohaku's increasing influence, but it's never been like this before. Something is seriously wrong here and he had no idea why that was. "Just what is happening to me?"

And there we go! Hmm, looks like I ended this chapter on a rather interesting note before putting this fic aside for a while. Damn, I just realized that. To those of you that end up wanting this updated faster after reading that last bit, I do apologize for having you to make you wait for a while (and I also apologize if this comment of mine somehow comes off to you as conceited. I don't mean it that), but like I mentioned in the note at the beginning of the chapter, I'll be working on Devil Apocalypse until I'm finished with it so until then I won't be updating this one for some time. I do sincerely hope that those of you genuinely like this fic and have it as one of your favorites can forgive me for this decision of mine.

But trust me, I am not abandoning this fic and I truly thank all of you for reading, reviewing, and even favoriting this fic; you guys are the best.

So until then, take care.


	8. Chapter 8

And I'm back! I am so sorry guys for taking so long to get back to this! Devil Apocalypse proved to be quite the experience for me! I should also note, that it was on my mind so much that I actually forgot some of the more important things that I had on my mind about this fic. In other words, I am suffering from a bad case of writer's block. However, everything is coming back to me (God bless Youtube) thanks to some HSDK videos as well as more recent chapters of it, like the introduction of Saiga for the first time (that dude is epic!)

Anyways, I'll try to update this relatively often as I am still having bad luck job-hunting and I also go back to school for my second year of college late August.

Here is the next chapter to To Fight a God!

P.S. Thank you reven228 for reminding me of that! I actually totally forgot about Nijima doing that kind of thing!

Chapter 8

A whole day has past since the Shinpaku Alliance meeting and the captains of said group being notified of what Nijima learned of Souchiro. The meeting had ended with Nijima facepalming himself after Kenichi asked him if he had any knowledge of Souichiro's school files so that they knew just who they were dealing with.

And so, now a day later, Kenichi stood with Takeda and Ukita at school in their PE uniforms as they were told of an upcoming sports festival.

"A sports festival? Sounds pretty exciting!" Takeda said.

Ukita was standing right next to him, looking positively pumped. "Ha ha ha ha, looking forward to it!"

Kenichi, on the other hand, didn't share their enthusiasm. "This was the one thing I hated the most…"

Nijima, who was also around the three, suddenly spoke up. "Cut the small talk! Recently, we've just been threatened by YOMI!" he exclaimed. He had a pair of binoculars with him and he used them to spy on Boris, Tirawit, Ethan, and Rachel from afar. "So far, they haven't tried anything yet."

He then looked a bit to the YOMI member's left and saw Souichiro dressed in his school uniform still. Everyone there was shivering a bit at his monstrous Ki as usual, but they weren't wetting themselves like before. Nijima blinked in surprise at this; it seemed as if Souichiro wasn't feeling too well. However, the true warrior's comrades didn't seem to notice this. "So this is what a sports festival is like!" Rachel said happily. As she looked around as saw some students partake in a few activities, she got even more excited, feeling that this was a good chance to show off.

Then, the lucha libre girl noticed Miu stretching nearby. "Hey, what group are you in?" she yelled out as she quickly approached the girl. Nijima, being relatively close by, jumped in fright as Rachel got closer and leapt behind Miu.

Miu, however, reacted the same way she always does and shoulder tossed the alien-like teen. "Group white," Miu answered to Rachel, who had to sidestep to avoid having Nijima slam into her.

As Nijima recovered, he noticed sparks fly between the two blondes as they suddenly got up close to one another. "Strange. They actually seem like they're here to have fun," he thought.

At the same time, Tirawit turned to leave his group, but was stopped by Boris. "Where are you going, Kokin? The instructor told us to have fun with the others!"

Tirwat paused midstep and glanced at Boris. "There is only one thing for a wolf to do inside a herd of sheep," he responded before leaving.

And then, that was when the sports festival began. Rachel took part in the cheerleading squad, her amazing athletic ability and her looks easily ensuring her a lot of attention from the guys. At the same time, Ukita competed in an event as well.

However, Takeda, Kisara, and Nijima were on the sidelines. "You know, come to think of it, I was given a time limit to decide on joining YOMI," Takeda said.

Kisara looked him, surprised. "So I wasn't the only one then after all."

Nijima looked shocked. "What? When does the deadline end?" he asked, nervous.

"Today. So if we don't give them an answer by today, they'll probably try something!" Takeda answered rather happily. Ignoring Nijima's cries of shock, he just took his usual boxer stance and threw a few light punches at the air. "Well, I'm ready for them if they try anything!"

As the three continued to talk after that, Kenichi was called up for the shot-put event. Grabbing the ball with his right hand, he took a throwing stance. As he did so, Miu was on the sidelines. "Kenichi-san, do your best!" she cheered.

This put a smile on Kenichi's face, one that grew wider as he overheard some girls nearby wondering if what they've heard about him training at a dojo was true and if he had gotten stronger. This prompted him to wonder a bit just how strong he's gotten. Thinking over this for a few seconds, he then threw the ball. It took off like a missile, flying threw the air at breckneck speeds. But at that same instant, Tanimoto unintentionally jumped too far during another event, getting everyone to take their eyes off Kenichi long enough to miss his throw.

And that was when Ethan caught the ball Kenichi threw. Kenichi freaked out, but before he could say anything, Ethan realized what was going on and hurled the ball back to where Kenichi was, landing barely a foot away from him. This was what everyone saw when they turned back to look at him. Kenichi had never felt so bad before in his life. That is, until Miu cheered him up a bit.

Several minutes later, another event was about to take place: the cavalry battle. The students immediately began to prepare for it, Kenichi being carried by Takeda, Ukita, and another student as they got ready for the event. Not far away from them, Nijima was trying to convince Tanimoto to let him be the one to be carried. He was failing miserably in this task. "Listen up, Prince Tanimoto," Nijima growled out, mocking the teen in question, "this is not just a chance to take away the opponents' bandanas; this is a chance to destroy our enemies!" he yelled at him. He wanted to be the one, as the leader of the Shinpaku Alliance to take away the bandanas of the other teams. That and he also wanted to the one carried so that he could get a good view of where all the members of YOMI were at, especially Souichiro. Nijima deemed it essential to know what the true warrior was up to at all times given how powerful he has shown himself to be so far.

Tanimoto, however, was having none of this. "Look behind you," he shot back at the alien-like teen. Nijima then did as Tanimoto said, only to see Tirawit being supported by Boris and Ethan. Another student was beside them to complete their group, but that didn't matter to Nijima one bit; the fact that there were three members of YOMI participating did. Nijima promptly got behind Tanimoto and lifted him up while two other students did the same in front.

"Protect me well!" Nijima yelled, getting an annoyed sigh out of Tanimoto. But as he said this, he couldn't help but ponder just what was going on. Up until now, Tirawit took absolutely no part in the sports festival, staying off to the side like Souichiro. Which brought up the question of why he was taking part in this event. The teen gulped nervously remembering what Takeda had said earlier about the deadline.

As he was busy thinking this, Rachel walked away from the cheering squad up to her brother and looked up at Tirawit. "And what's this? Isn't this the total opposite of what you said?" she questioned, but she had a smirk on her face, apparently knowing what the dark-skinned teen had planned. Tirawit, for his part, ignored her.

A moment later, Rachel returned to her previous spot and she and the other cheerleaders started their routine as the event began. As the teams made their way out onto the field, Miu and Kisara cheered for Kenichi and Ukita respectively from a spot right beside Izumi and Makoto. Ukita raised his left arm in acknowledgement of Kisara's cheer, nearly letting Kenichi fall before he quickly corrected his mistake. He did so just in time too as the event started and within seconds the teams charges at one another with surprising force.

However, just as some teams began to clash, the one comprised of YOMI moved forward at speeds beyond what a normal person could keep up with, clearly evident by how the student to Tirawit's right held onto to Tirawit's leg for dear life as Boris and Ethan charged forward, knocking aside all they bumped into. At the same time, the students that were being carried were knocked aside by Tirawit, who stared intently on a single group: Kenichi's.

Tirawit's team did a zig-zag running pattern, easily breaking through the ranks of the small teams that made up the white side of this event in its path towards Kenichi's team. Nijima noticed this. "It's no good Tanimoto! That bastard plans to make it look like an accident while attacking Kenichi!" he exclaimed to Tanimoto. The blonde teen swore and ordered for his team to turn around and go after them, but it was too late; the YOMI team had already reached Kenichi's.

Running right at them, Boris nearly crash into Takeda as Tirawit leaned forward and threw a powerful punch at the off-guard Kenichi. A loud boom could be heard as Tirawit's fist made contact.

Tanimoto swore once more as he watched this and order his team to go faster, but they were cut off by other teams wanting to take down Tanimoto. "I don't have time for this!" he thought and he quickly leapt off Nijima and the other two teens supporting him and started to leap across the backs of other students to get to Tirawit.

Souichiro, watching this from a bench, raised an eyebrow. He sure wasn't expecting this to happen. His eyebrow rose even further as he looked closer at Kenichi and Tirawit and saw that the latter hadn't thrown a punch, but some sort of open palm thrust, an attack that he noted Kenichi had actually managed to catch. He then watched in interest as Tirawit made a grab for Kenichi's other hand, forcing the disciple into a deadlock before the teen began to twist his elbow, pushing Kenichi back.

Ukita growled at this and so did Takeda. "So you want to take us on in school, huh?" Takeda said to Boris.

Ukita, on the other hand, chose to show his anger in a more physical way, by slamming into the ordinary student of YOMI's team, knocking the teen back to reveal that Boris and Ethan had been the ones to support Tirawit this whole time with their hands. The other student was just there for show. Ukita gained a shocked expression on his face as did Takeda who saw him do this.

Kenichi noticed this as well, his attention drifting off Tirawit long enough for the mostly silent YOMI member to spin his arms, forcing Kenichi to stand up much higher than he already was. Kenichi was then saved from whatever Tirawit was going to do next by Tanimoto, who came leaping at the YOMI member from his back.

However, Tirawit sensed him coming and let go of Kenichi to spin around and grab Tanimoto. But Tanimoto was fast and managed to lean forward, getting on top of Tirawit's back and leaping off, noticing no killing intent at all coming from him. Quickly leaping across other students back to his team, Tanimoto couldn't help but wonder just what was going on. It seemed like YOMI planned to really take down Kenichi, but after getting that close, he couldn't help but second guess this.

Looking around briefly, Tanimoto noticed that all the other teams seem to have been taken out, leaving his, YOMI's and Kenichi's teams left. "You don't really want to participate in this, do you?" Tanimoto asked Tirawit.

Kenichi's team approached the YOMI one from their right. "Just what are you planning to do?" Kenichi demanded.

Tirawit merely shrugged his hands, taunting the two teams to come at him. "This is merely a game," he simply said in response to the two questions.

Tanimoto then smirked. "Interesting. A test of strength during a game?"

Souichiro, being able to hear them, couldn't help but be somewhat amused by this. Given how Sohaku's influence really crept into his mind the other day, he really needed something to take his mind off of this; he didn't sleep too well last night because of it and it showed in his slightly diminished Ki. This little battle between the three groups should prove to be good enough to get his mind off of this recent development.

Meanwhile, the Juken Club were currently exploring the city, having a map with them that a hotel employee had given them before leaving. As Masataka had expected, Maya had not been too happy with him going off and getting into trouble during his long walk nearly two days ago, signified by Masataka having to carry all of the group's stuff as they went to different stores and bought some stuff. He wasn't complaining too much; at least she didn't knock his head off.

"So how tough do you think these YOMI guys are?" Bob asked Masataka. After waking up the previous day, he told Maya of what Kenichi had told him, after which he informed the rest of the club when Maya found the info to be of interest to them. They may not have anything to do with their search for Souichiro, but it could possibly be a problem for them in the future if YOMI was in town.

Masataka adjusted a bag hanging from his shoulder before shrugging. "Don't know since I didn't fight that Boris guy," he replied. He had also told them all of what he went through as well so they knew who he was talking about.

Shinichiro, who was walking by Masataka's side, was deep in thought as he drank a juice he bought from one of the stores they visited. "Judging from the skill level of this Kenichi guy you mentioned and that he apparently had a tough fight with Boris, then it can be assumed the other YOMI members are roughly around the same level."

Masataka looked at him, eyebrow raised. "So then, if they manage to catch us off-guard, they could probably win if we don't respond quick enough?"

Shinichiro nodded. "Given what you've been told, that these YOMI guys aim to kill, then yeah, it's a possibility."

Kagesada scratched his chin. "But we have Maya and Aya with us and we're no slouches ourselves, so I really don't think we'd have that big a problem with them."

Bob, having been silent this whole time since asking his question, stifled a yawn. "Well, as long as they don't get in the way, then I don't really see why we should worry about them. If they come, they come and if they don't, they don't," he said.

Maya, her and Aya having been completely quiet the whole time, spoke for the first time. Crossing her arms under her breasts, she glanced at Masataka. "We can't afford to relax just yet though. Given the little we know of them now, we can't just expect this YOMI group to stay away from us. Chances are if we encounter one another and they sense our strength, then we will have to fight them." She was quiet for a few seconds before speaking again. "Though I'm a bit more curious about this new recruit that they apparently got."

Masataka nodded. "Yeah. From the way Kenichi-san spoke of him, he's incredibly powerful, moreso than the other members of YOMI based off Ki alone."

Maya nodded in confirmation of that. "Exactly. And apparently, he doesn't have any clue on how this new recruit is like so he may very well be a wild card. And I'd rather not deal with this whole thing while in the dark on this."

Aya, who was silent the whole time due to being the one with the map and studying it, looked away from it for a minute. "So we are heading to the school now, right?" she asked her sister. When Mitsuomi had called Maya about what one of his contacts had seen, Aya had been very eager to check out the school that Souichiro had been spotted at. It did cross her mind that it was a bit strange for Mitsuomi to have someone watching schools apparently, but she wasn't going to complain about it.

Maya sighed and then nodded towards Aya. "Yeah. We already have the stuff we need," she replied, gesturing to Masataka with the bags.

"And it is Mitsuomi we're talking about here. I'm sure his info is accurate," Kagesada said as he stretched his arms, his words comforting Aya a bit.

Aya beamed, happy to hopefully see Souichiro again. If the information was spot on and they found him, Aya was determined to this time help her fiancé get rid of Sohaku for good. As she picked up her walking pace, the rest of the Juken Club couldn't help but feel a bit better too. Aya was usually the main driving force behind them. Well, actually it was Maya given that she ran the club, but she was always backed by Aya, so if Aya felt really down, it would rub off on Maya, which would then extend to the Juken Club. So to see Aya getting some life back into her was making the day a bit better for them all.

"Now where is the school on this map?" They heard her mutter to herself aloud. Masataka couldn't help but smile at Aya, glad to see that she is getting back to her usual self.

They all traveled in silence as Aya tried to locate the school on the surprisingly large map, occasionally stopping to ask some passerbys for directions when it seemed like they accidently got lost. But eventually, Aya was able to locate the place in question on the map and they all started to make their way there.

As this went on, back at the school, the cavalry battle had since then come to an end, Tirawit backing off before the event ended. The reason why he had backed off was because he had finished his analysis of both Kenichi and Tanimoto, something that the two teens both realized and were weary of. Kenichi, however, had noticed one thing about Tirawit: he used Muay Thai.

The sports event had then gone on to the girls' events, events that Rachel had taken great pleasure in showing off in. She even encouraged her brother Ethan to show off his impressive strength as well in a tug of war game.

But all the while, none of the YOMI members tried anything, much to the confusion of the Shinpaku Alliance members. Souichiro still remained on the bench, looking a bit better due to the entertainment watching the sports festival had provided to him, though it didn't show on his face. And this lack of reaction only got Kenichi, Nijima, and the others worried as they were reading this as perhaps a wait-for-the-signal strategy that was sometimes employed by people, but nothing still occurred.

But this occurred some time ago now. Now it was the end of the day and all of the students and teachers were getting ready to wrap this whole event up. Kisara stretched as she walked with Ukita, Takeda, Nijima, and Miu. "How boring. I thought they were planning to do something," she said, commenting on YOMI.

Takeda and Ukita looked to be on the same page as her. "If anything happens though, don't hesitate to call for help!" Ukita said to the Tae Kwon Do user.

Takeda nodded in agreement. "Yeah. Who knows, maybe they just want us to think they won't try anything before attacking us." However, despite his statement, he looked quite relaxed and so did Ukita and Kisara.

Nijima and Miu, on the other hand, were not as relaxed as their friends. "Something is up. Souichiro may not have been doing anything, but it's still odd that his presence isn't as strong as before. Did something happen to him?" Nijima thought. After Kenichi had asked him about Souichiro's school files yesterday, he had spent the whole night putting his computer skills to use to get the info he wanted. And he certainly got it, but he hadn't found a particularly good time to tell the group about what he learned due to them all being on guard for YOMI.

Miu was simply worried that YOMI may have something planned for later. "No doubt they have something planned. They're just waiting for a good time to spring it," she thought, knowing that there is simply no way that YOMI would come to their school and just act like normal students for no reason; there had to be an ulterior motive. And given that Kenichi had beaten their previous leader Kano, whatever they have planned would most likely be aimed at Kenichi.

Thinking of the boy in question now, Miu finally noticed that he wasn't with them. "Oh, where's Kenichi?" she asked, worried that something may have happened.

"Ah, he went to water the flowers," Kisara answered, setting Miu's mind at ease a bit.

But back by the bench, Souichiro was getting ready to head back to the classroom, the students around him tensing up in fear as he stood and started walking. However, after taking barely a dozen steps, he froze. The reason why: he sensed a red feather. Over his world-wide journey to absorb red feathers quite some time ago, he has come to develop a sort of sixth sense to them, being able to somehow sense when one is relatively close by, usually within a dozen city blocks or so.

But that wasn't why he was so surprised. The real reason why he was frozen in shock was because he recognized the feel of this particular red feather. "Aya," he muttered.

Back with the Juken Club, they were all nearing the school, being several city blocks away. And that was when things went from relatively normal to something out of the blue. Aya, happily walking ahead of the whole group, suddenly gasped and dropped the map in her hands, making the others nearly jump and quickly catch up with her.

"Aya? Aya, what's wrong?" Maya asked her younger sister, concerned for her.

Masataka looked to be just as worried as Maya and so did the rest of the Juken Club, though they didn't voice it.

Then Maya walked in front of Aya and her eyes widened. Aya had her Dragon's Eye activated. Maya took a step back in shock. It had been quite some time since Aya had ever used the Dragon's Eye. "Why is she using it now?" she wondered to herself.

The rest of the Juken Club looked confused at Maya's reaction, but then Aya turned around to face them and they had a similar reaction as well. But the surprise they felt now quickly gave way to shock when Aya suddenly spoke. "Souichiro-sama. He's nearby."

And before any of them could even question her about this, Aya ran off, the unique connection that she and Souichiro had between them serving as a guide of sorts for her. Maya and the others, still somewhat stupefied by the suddenness of all this, quickly snapped out of it and went after her.

Back at the school, Souichiro's eyes widened as he sensed Aya quickly approaching. He swore as he knew that if he saw her, given his current state, he may devour her power as soon as she was close enough, unable to control himself. He didn't want that, not one bit. But the fact that Aya was coming here seemed to register something else in his mind. "If she's here, then the others must be here as well," he thought.

For reasons he couldn't explain, Souichiro began to feel a strange sense of panic. This caused his Ki to spike up to his usual levels and past that a bit, causing for the nearby students and teachers to nearly pass out in utter fear from the feel of Souichiro's ungodly power.

Souichiro noted this and immediately began to walk away. And then broke out into a bit of a jog, his feet making deeper than usual imprints in the ground. He began to feel his breath quicken as he found Sohaku's influence trying to make him wait for Aya to come so he could devour her Dragon's Eye. "Damn it," he muttered as he fought off the influence.

He stopped for the briefest of seconds to look around for a place to go and after spying a particular building on the school campus, he took off.

Meanwhile, Kenichi was utterly oblivious to what was going as he made his way over the garden, carrying with him two buckets full of water. He hummed happily, glad that aside from the cavalry battle, there was nothing out of the ordinary.

However, that happy feeling soon vanished as he approached the garden and saw someone lying on the ground, beaten and bloodied. "Wha-What?" Kenichi yelled before running over to the fallen person. Setting down the buckets, Kenichi knelt down by the person. "Hey, are you alright?" he asked as he began to get closer to help the person up. He stopped though when he recognized who it was. "Diamonj-kun from the Karate Club?" he nearly yelled.

Indeed, the guy who had bullied Kenichi what felt like such a long time ago was the person lying before him. Daimonji, at the sound of Kenichi's voice, managed to raise his head a little, his face bruised badly and bleeding a bit. He grunted as he tried to move a bit more, but decided to just stay put on the ground. "He… he beat me up…" he slowly said between breaths of pain.

"What? Who?" Kenichi asked in worry.

Daimonji took a few breaths, trying to keep himself still conscious before answering. "The exchange student, Tirawit Kokin!"

* * *

And there we go!

Yeah, sorry guys once again for the nearly year long wait since the last chapter. As I said in the beginning of the chapter, sorry that this took so long, had a bad case of writer's block and all as my mind transitioned from finishing Devil Apocalypse back to this fic. Sorry if the quality of this chapter seems bad as a result, but I will do my best to get back in the groove on this fic relatively soon so hopefully the next few chapters will be in better quality.

Hope you enjoyed the chapter and please be sure to review!


	9. Chapter 9

Yo guys, hope you're all doing well. I know I am despite the job-hunting still. Man, I sure hope I can get one…

But moving on, it's time for the next chapter!

And I'm not sure if any of you have noticed, but I have left out Madoka from the Juken Club. Trust me, I have done this for a reason that will be explained in a few chapters or so.

Chapter 9

After being helped to his feet, Daimonji told Kenichi of the Karate Club being in danger and pleaded for Kenichi to come with him. Kenichi, being the guy that he is, whole-heartedly agreed and the two made their way over to the building where the Karate Club usually met, Kenichi helping Daimonji along the way due to his beaten form.

Once they reached the building, Kenichi practically slammed open the door. "Stop it, Tirawit Kokin!" He yelled out, determined to put a stop to whatever Tirawit had planned. However, this determination of his gave way to shock when he noticed nearly ten people, most likely members of the Karate Club judging by their build, standing in the center of the room. "What the…?" he muttered.

"So he actually came. You did good, Daimonji," one of them, a guy with a lean, well-muscled physique and nearly shoulder length hair said.

From behind Kenichi, Daimonji weakly chuckled. "Thanks. It was easy to get his sympathy," he said in between deep breaths as he tried to remain standing.

Kenichi, looking over the guys in front of him, sighed in resignation, immediately figuring them to be delinquents. "Don't tell me you want to pick on me again," he muttered as he sincerely wished to avoid unnecessary fights.

But then Kenichi's eyes widened in shock as the guys took a fighting stance, a Muay Thai one. "What?" he nearly yelled, more than surprised by this. "Something is wrong here. What is with their stance?" Kenichi thought to himself as he took on a defensive stance in case of an attack.

"Ha, looks like you've noticed huh?" one of the guys said.

Another one took a step towards Kenichi. "We know you're being trained pretty well in some dojo! But we were trained by Lord Narasimha. With this many people, we won't lose to you!"

"Narashimha?" Kenichi asked.

"The Lion God King, Narasimha! That is what we call Tirawit Koukin, who taught them all Muay Thai in a short period of time!" Daimonji explained from where he was at.

"Who said you could talk Daimonji?" the guy with long hair roared at him.

Daimonji, much to Kenichi's surprise, tried to back away from the guy, bringing up his arms as if to guard against an invisible barrage of punches as he sputtered out an apology. "Daimonji-kun?" Kenichi asked.

"Hmph, Lord Narasimha has judged him to have no talent and now he serves as our punching bag," a guy said, sneering at Daimonji.

At this, Kenichi couldn't help but remember back when he had first joined the Karate Club and how Daimonji had knocked him around, hitting him just for fun. He dropped his defensive stance and walked on over to Daimonji. "Daimonji-kun…" he began as he offered the former ace of the Karate Club a hand up, only for the large teen to swat his hand away.

"Shut up! You think you know me?" he roared at Kenichi.

But to Daimonji's surprise, Kenichi wasn't even remotely fazed by his response. "Yes. I know what it's like because no one knows that pain better than I do," he replied, making Daimonji's eyes widen in shock at his words. A few seconds later, Daimonji lowered his head as he seemed to think over what Kenichi just said.

Kenich then chose this time to start standing back up. "Anyways," he began, now speaking to the guys, "let's talk this out. You people were dragged into this…"

The Ryozanpaku disciple didn't get to finish for it was this time that several of the guys charged at him. "There's no need for talking!" one yelled as he attacked Kenichi with a low kick.

But Kenichi had been expecting something like this and so he back-flipped out of the way, amazed at how fierce the attack was. Tirawit was clearly a good teacher for them to have such good form. Kenichi then tsked as another guy tried to take him out from behind with a punch, but Kenichi merely moved to his right and brought up his left arm, deflecting the punch away from him. At the same time, another one attacked him from the front, but Kenichi was able to move his head out of the way of his fist as it soared right by him now. However, another guy went for a chop from Kenichi's right.

Kenichi, though definitely surprised by it, managed to tilt his head back just enough for the guy's chop to miss and hit his comrade. Before he could even put on a shocked expression at the friendly fire attack, Kenichi lashed out with his right fist, catching the guy on the left side of his face and knocking him away. "Impossible! How could they have learned such strong attacks from YOMI who only recently got transferred here?" Kenichi thought in a bit of fright. If the Karate Club members could improve this much in such a short amount of time, then he was truly terrified of what could happen if Tirawit had gathered more people and trained them for a much longer period of time.

But he didn't let this thought get him down and Kenichi was quick to turn a bit and knock out the guy behind him with a fierce high kick that sent the Karate Club member flying. He hit the floor at the same time as the other two guys Kenichi had just taken out.

Daimonji watched all of this in complete and utter shock. "How could he be this strong?" he thought, having a hard time believing that this is the same guy that he once bullied so long ago. The difference in strength was truly impressive.

"Impressive." The voice snapped Kenichi and Daimonji out of their thoughts and they looked for where the voice came from. The other few guys that have yet to attack Kenichi did nothing, but didn't drop their stance as both Kenichi and Daimonji looked over to one side of the room and saw someone standing behind a punching bag. It was obvious from the guy's build that it was Tirawit.

Kenichi was going to call the YOMI member out, but didn't get the chance to do so. That was because Tirawit suddenly punched the punching bag with such force that it snapped right off the small chain that left it hanging and the Karate Club members remaining watched as it went sailing across the room towards Kenichi. The punching bag moved at such speeds that Kenichi was just barely able to put up his Seikuken and knock it aside with an elbow. Daimonji flinched as it then landed near him.

"So you finally show yourself, Tirawit Koukin!" Kenichi yelled as he made a tight fist.

Tirawit didn't immediately respond to Kenichi's word, but he did let off quite a bit of Ki, enough to make Kenichi stiffen. "You're impressive," he said a moment later.

"What do you mean?" Kenichi asked, not letting his guard down.

"I'm saying you defeated them with ease," Tirawit responded.

Kenichi dropped his guard just a bit. "Well, their attacks were strong, but they had no defense," he said back, uncertain of just what was going on. It almost seemed like Tirawit was making fun of him, but given the little he knew of the YOMI member so far, it didn't seem that way.

"That's not what I'm saying. I mean that a naïve boy like you did a surprisingly good job at beating the shit right out of your colleagues." Tirawit glared at Kenichi as he said this.

Kenichi froze as the words registered in his mind. Then he turned around and broke out into a bit of a nervous sweat at the state the guys were in. "Wh-Why are they hurt so badly?" he cried out as he took note of just badly bruised and bleeding the three guys were.

Tirawit dropped his Ki to normal levels and placed his hands in his pocket. "As you can see, you knocked them all out with one hit. Not surprising at all given that I taught them nothing about defense." Tirawit looked at Kenichi, at how the teen looked at his fists. "It's been a long time since you fought a regular person. Did you finally notice. Your limbs – no, your entire body – has become a deadly weapon."

Then almost immediately after saying this, Tirawit moved forward a bit and took a Muay Thai stance, this serving as a signal to the other guys to stand down. "Now then, let's begin," he said.

This made Kenichi jump back in shock at what Tirawit was doing. "W-Wait! There's still plenty of questions I want to ask you!" he yelled.

However, Tirawit was clearly done talking as he stepped forward and unleashed a powerful flurry of punches at Kenichi, each of them aimed at the Ryozanpaku disciple with deadly accuracy. Kenichi managed to dodge them all, but only barely and partially because he had unconsciously anticipated something like this.

Kenichi then adopted a serious expression as he leapt back, wanting to put some space between him and his opponent. "So you don't want to talk huh?"

Tirawit merely let loose some Ki in response, prompting Kenichi to take up a defensive stance. The Karate Club members still standing remained up against the wall, in awe and fear of the Ki their Muay Thai teacher was letting out. Daimonji, however, opted for something different: fleeing the room. He slammed open the door to the club building and bolted out of there, wanting to get away from the two disciples as fast as possible. This action of his was ignored by everyone.

"As I thought, this guy uses Muay Thai! But it's a little different from the Muay Thai I practice with Apachai every day!" Kenichi thought, noting that Tirawit's stance was different from the one he usually used.

Tirawit launched his attack, or rather his attacks at Kenichi at that moment. He first started off with something of a spinning punch, followed by a left hook, then a right elbow blow and an uppercut, advancing forward with every movement. Kenichi quickly found himself on the defensive as he was forced into blocking all of the potentially deadly blows with his Seikuken.

But the last attack of Tirawit's combo managed to actually push through Kenichi's Seikuken a bit, much to the teen's shock. Tirawit took advantage of the momentary surprise to jump slightly and deliver a kick to Kenichi's chest, which said person was just barely able to block with the palms of his hands. "This technique… is it ancient Muay Thai?" Kenichi wondered, wondering once more just how similar and different Tirawit's Muay Thai was compared to his own. As this thought crossed his mind, Kenichi vaguely recalled a time where he was going out for a little midnight stroll and saw Apachai training, his move different from usual. He didn't get a chance to ask the giant on this as that was when Apachai accidently backhanded him into the sky. Later he had been told by Akisame that it was something known as Muay Boran, a martial arts style that had been used for killing.

He was snapped out of his trip down memory lane when Tirawit lunged forward. "I'm done analyzing your abilities, Shirahama Kenichi!" he said as he reared back his left fist.

This infuriated Kenichi. "Don't look down on me!" he roared at him as he blocked the blow with his forearm as soon as Tirawit launched the punch. Then Kenichi unleashed the Rekka Apunch, which is a flurry of Muay Thia punches straight to the chest and face. Tirawit moved back to avoid the furious attacks and when he did so, he felt his foot brush up against one of the guys on the floor. Much to the shock of the guys, who were watching the fight in awe, Tirawit back-flipped over the down man and used his foot to actually fling him at Kenichi.

This ended up obscuring Kenichi's field of view, allowing the YOMI member to unleash a torrent of punches that Kenichi was just able to see as the guy nearly went flying over his head. Quickly grabbing hold of the still unconscious guy, Kenichi backed away, deflecting some punches with one arm. After stepping away a good distance, he set the guy down and glared at Tirawit. "Don't go throwing unconscious people around!" he yelled, angered by the dirty move.

Tirawit was unfazed by Kenichi's words. "Aren't you the one who knocked them out in the first place?" he calmly shot back.

Kenichi bit back a response and just stood back up and assumed a Karate stance. But Tirawit wasn't done talking just yet. "Your fists are already deadly weapons. Soon, it will be the same as our Satsujinken."

At this Kenichi flinched in rage. He certainly didn't like practically being compared to the likes of YOMI. "As long as I'm in Ryozanpaku, I will never end up like that!" he yelled. Charging forward, he readied a fist. "Take this! Rekka Sajinbaku!"

His left fist went forward, his entire arm twisting to give the punch extra power. He intended to put Tirawit down. However, Tirawit did something he certainly didn't see coming: he dropped his arms to his side, much to everyone's surprise. "He dropped his guard!" Kenichi thought in shock, realizing now that even if his opponent was a YOMI member, taking his attack head on like this would have unwanted results. So in keeping with his morals, Kenichi began to slow his punch.

But before he could fully stop it, Tirawit responded, suddenly performing an attack known as Yan Erawan. He twisted his body to the right, so much so that his head quickly came to threaten hitting the floor. At the same time, he raised his left leg and the Karate Club members up against the wall watched as Tirawit's left knee slammed right into Kenichi's exposed chest, connecting with amazing force.

"As I thought. You're just like your profile says…" Tirawit said, more to himself aloud than to Kenichi or the Karate Club members. And as he moved back into a fully standing position, he and the Karate club members watched as Kenichi began to fall.

Meanwhile, Daimonji was running for dear life. "There's no way Shirahama is going to win against that guy! He'll probably even get killed!" he yelled. He tried to pick up his running pace, but found himself slowing down, his body too beat up to keep up the pace. "But it's no concern of mine! I don't know anything about it!" he said right before he tripped over something.

"Ow! Why is this lying around?" he asked aloud only to notice that what he had just tripped over was the watering bucket of Kenichi's. At the sight of this, he remembered when Kenichi first joined the Karate Club, how he and the others picked on the teen, followed by how after Daimonji was actually beaten by Kenichi he realized he didn't want to give up Karate as the rest of the club had said he promised he'd leave if he lost.

"Shirahama," he muttered. Daimonji slowly but surely managed to stand up. He turned around, facing the direction he just ran from. "I have to go back," he thought and with renewed vigor, sprinted back to the Karate Club building.

At the same time, Miu was standing by the school gate, having been waiting for Kenichi to finish watering the plants so they could go home. "He's late!" she cutely complained as she kicked at the ground.

Miu was suddenly beginning to get very worried. She really hoped nothing happened to him. "Nah, he's fine. He has to be fine. He's just probably double checking that all the plants were watered," she thought, trying to calm herself down. But it didn't make this worrying feeling go away.

She suddenly stood straight up as she then felt an approaching Ki. "What is this feeling?" she thought as she suppressed a shiver. It felt almost like Souichiro's unnatural Ki only nowhere near the same amount. Yet there was this strange quality to it that made it some unearthly. And it was approaching the school rather fast.

"Aya, slow down!" Miu's head snapped up in the direction the voice came from and she had to walk past the school gate a bit and look down the street to see a brown haired girl that was easily more well-endowed than her come running down the block. Further past her, more people could be seen, but Miu couldn't make out any particular features about them save for one being rather tall.

Almost unconsciously, Miu set down her school bag and removed her glasses. She didn't take on her usual fighting stance, but she was ready to assume it if it came down to it. She just really hoped that the approaching people weren't bad news for her and her friends.

Back in the Karate Club building, Kenichi was lying on the floor, Tirawit standing proud over him. "Even if you could beat Shou Kano, you could never beat me," he said to the down Ryozanpaku disciple. The Karate Club members were as silent as they have been this whole time, but they were looking upon Tirawit in awe of the blow he had landed. They were about to move towards him when the teen bent down to inspect Kenichi, taking note of his seemingly lifeless eyes.

Tirawit went to feel for a pulse, in order to make sure that he had indeed eliminated or rather kill Kenichi. He placed two fingers against the side of Kenichi's neck and nodded to himself upon feeling no pulse.

"No pulse or reaction. The target has been eliminated," Tirawit said.

At that, the Karate Club members' mood changed. They were still in amazement over the match they had just seen and were glad that payback had been given to Kenichi who had unintentionally humiliated them, at least in their minds, when he beat Daimonji all that time ago. However, they never wanted him dead. That was just going too far.

"Lord Narasimha, was it really necessary to kill the guy. I mean, hey, we never liked the little bastard, but did you have to-?" one began to say, but stopped speaking immediately when Tirawit leveled a stern gaze at him.

"I promised you all that your vengeance would be satisfied as long as you did as I said. I fulfilled my end of this deal by training you all and you played your part as well. Are you now telling me that you regret this?" Tirawit said calmly, yet his Ki was flaring, making the Karate Club members shudder in fear.

"N-N-No," one of them answered back, not meeting the YOMI member's eyes.

Tirawit just looked at them all and then began to leave several seconds later when suddenly, Kenichi's eyes blinked and he started gasping for air. This got a slight widening of the eyes from the stoic Tirawit and looks of sheer shock from the guys standing against the walls.

Kenichi took several breaths of air, blinking rapidly as he got oxygen back into his brain. Slowly he began to stand up, holding a hand to the spot where Tirawit struck him. "Urgghh, that really hurt," he said. And he was definitely not lying; he had actually had a feeling that Tirawit would have taken advantage of him trying to pull his punch and he was right. Just before Tirawit's knee had struck its mark, Kenichi had managed to bring up his right hand in time to block the attack a bit, not enough to stop it but enough to prevent it from being a true killing blow.

"You… certainly exceeded my expectations. This is a first for me, to be wrong," Tirawit said, having not seen this coming at all.

Kenichi just weakly glared at him as he now was completely up. The Karate guys against the wall just looked at him in amazement and a bit of fear. If someone they had deemed a wimp and loser at first could do so well against their Lord Nirasimha and even manage to apparently come back from the dead, then he was surely someone that they definitely didn't want to fight.

Some of them began to take a few steps towards the door of the building, ready to bolt. "Well, I try," Kenichi said to Tirawit.

"It certainly won't happen again," Tirawit responded, not letting the surprise he felt keep him from doing what he had set out to do. He took on his Muay Boran fighting stance while Kenichi weakly assumed a defensive Karate stance.

But then all of them stiffened at the fell of the monstrous Ki that they had tried to get used to these past few days. "Oh God, not him," Kenichi thought. As soon as these four words crossed his mind, the door to the building was nearly blown off its hinges and in walked the new YOMI member Souichiro.

The Karate Club guys froze where they were, their bodies petrified by the ungodly Ki that Souichiro had, some of them even trying to unconsciously hold his breath as the Ki was so stifling that had they all had a very hard time breathing.

But Souichiro ignored them and just kept walking forward, his feet cracking the floor as he went, his hand clutching his head. As he approached, Tirawit and Kenichi could hear him grunting in what could be pain. They weren't that far off the mark as Souichiro would have made it here, to this building which he had seen earlier, much sooner were it not for his impulses that kept distracting him along the way. And now as a result of fighting the impulse to just go after Aya was so strong that he had a headache unlike anything he's ever had before. It felt like his skull was going to split open on its own any second now.

As a result of this, it took the true warrior nearly half a minute before he raised his lowered head and saw Kenichi and Tirawit. Tirawit didn't so much as flinch under Souichiro's gaze, though the latter could still sense the uneasiness of the former. Kenichi, on the other hand, actually looked ready to bolt; every single one of his danger senses were going on the fritz around Souichiro.

"What the hell are you two doing?" he asked, though it came out as more of a growl. Behind him, the Karate Club members suppressed the urge to shiver as the growl sent untold amounts of chills up and down their spines.

However, Souichiro suddenly turned around to face them and some of them actually wet themselves at the glare he was leveling at them. "Get. Out. Now," he said curtly. They didn't have to be told twice. They ran out of there as fast as they could go, leaving Kenichi and Tirawit alone with him.

"Is something wrong?" Tirawit asked after Souichiro turned back around to face. He asked this not out of concern, but out of curiosity as to why Souichiro was here. In all the time he had spent with YOMI thus far, he had never seemed to seek any of them out for whatever reason. The fact that he was here now said something about him.

Souichiro just looked at him. "You fighting this guy?" he asked, utterly ignoring Tirawit's question.

Tirawit's left eye twitch slightly at Souichiro, but he nodded in the affirmative, not dropping his stance. Kenich's gaze meanwhile was switching from Tirawit to Souichiro and back again.

"Crap, this is bad. Really bad!" Kenichi thought. "Koukin is bad enough, but now this Souichiro guy? How am I getting out of this?"

Souichiro then looked Kenichi dead in the eye, nearly making Kenichi attack him on sheer instinct if only to make him stop looking. But then Souichiro lurched forward a bit, clutching his head in pain. Sohaku was once again trying to drive him to going outside and waiting for Aya. To hurt her, to take away her Dragon's eye and crush anyone else that gets in the way. "No," he thought.

He let out a gasp of pain, taking both Kenichi and Tirawit by surprise. Despite this, Tirawit remained still. Kenich, however, actually dropped his stance and went forward to actually check on Souichiro. He may not want anything to do with the guy, but he couldn't just ignore someone that was obviously in pain. And it wasn't as if Souichiro had done anything yet to say that he was a bad person.

"Are you alright?" Kenichi asked as he was about to grab hold of the true warrior. But just before his hand could touch his shoulder, Kenichi immediately jumped back as Souichiro's hair suddenly began to move on its own, several large strands of it moving at blinding speeds at Kenichi's hand. Kenichi's eyes widened in shock as he felt the smallest of slices coming from the strands of hair that just narrowly missed his hand. If he hadn't pulled back when he did, he'd be out a hand.

"Wh-What!" he cried out. Even Tirawit was surprised, leaping back as well as Souichiro's hair extended in his direction too.

"Get away from me!" Souichiro yelled.

Kenichi gulped. "But you're hu-!" he began, but then saw Souichiro rear back his left fist and let loose a punch.

Even though Souichiro was several feet away from him, the punch was so strong that it sent out a shockwave towards Kenichi. Kenichi, just barely noticing this due to how fast the punch was, rolled out of the way and not a second too soon as the shockwave went on and struck the wall, blowing a huge hole in it that was easily three or four times the size of Kenichi.

Kenichi's mouth dropped open. "My God, he's probably just as strong as Sakaki shishou!" he thought. And it appeared to have been a relatively casual punch too! He couldn't imagine what the result could have been if it were a stronger attack.

But then Kenichi felt Souichiro's Ki get close, far too close and when he looked forward again, Souichiro was right in front of him. Kenichi was about to yell in surprise, but didn't get a chance to do so.

The reason why: Souichiro punched him. Right in the same spot Tirawit had struck him.

Kenichi at that moment, seemed to freeze. He just stopped moving. He looked down at Souichiro's fist as the true warrior withdrew his fist. He then looked back at Souichiro's face and saw as the teen's expression quickly shifted from one of rage and pain at something to one of shock at what he just did.

Souichiro took a step back, almost unable to believe what he had just did. He and Tirawit, who also looked rather surprised at what happened, watched as Kenichi's eyes slowly began to lose the life in them. Then Kenichi fell back, his eyes staring lifelessly at the ceiling.

Souichiro was horrified. "What did I just do?" he thought. He didn't mean for this to happen. He had just come here to get away from the approaching Aya and just wait until the urges he was having disappeared, not to come in, interrupt a fight, and just attack someone. Not like this.

He stood perfectly still for a moment and so did Tirawit. The Muya Boran using teen was in a strange state of shock and satisfaction. Shock at what had just occurred within the past few moments and satisfaction at Souichiro's actions as the true warrior, Susanno, may have just done what he had set out to do.

Tirawit waited about half a minute before crouching down by Kenichi and placed two fingers by his neck again. He kept them there for another half minute before standing back up. He was just about to speak when Souichiro did instead. "He's dead. He has no pulse," he said.

Tirawit glanced at him, holding back his surprise at how Souichiro knew, but then remembered how not too long after joining YOMI, Souichiro had demonstrated incredibly heightened senses. He merely nodded. "Yes."

Souichiro gave no response. He merely stared at Kenichi. Tirawit turned around. "We should leave," he said. When Souichiro didn't respond, Tirawit just stared at him for several seconds and then calmly walked away, out the door that Souichiro came through.

Several seconds later, Souichiro followed after him, sparing Kenichi another glance before leaving. He really hoped that the guy could be saved.

At the same time, Daimonji was currently running through the school halls, trying to locate the Shinpaku Alliance room. At first he had intended to go back to the Karate Club building himself, but changed his mind after remembering just how beat up he was. He wouldn't have been of much help. He was further convinced to seek out the Shinpaku Alliance even more when he heard what had sounded like a loud explosion just now.

"Damn, at this rate, Shirahama will get killed! He may be a hell of a lot stronger than before , but it probably won't matter!" he thought.

Finally, he reached the room, but as soon as he opened the door and was about to yell out for Nijima, he was stopped by Matsui and another member. "Halt! State the password!" Matsui yelled, but Daimonji, not in the mood for this, shoved the two aside.

"Nijima! Is Nijima here!" Daimonji yelled. Upon spotting the alien-like teen busy on his laptop, he moved forward. "Shirahama is fighting Tirawit! Right now!"

That grabbed Nijima's attention. Like Daimonji, he and the other Shinpaku members heard the loud explosion like sound just now, but decided not to do anything about it just yet mainly because he knew that he and guys like Matsui were simply not cut out for fighting. But now with this new piece of information, things were different. "Shit! Alright, everyone come with me!" he commanded.

He turned to Daimonji. "Where to?"

"Just follow me!" Daimonji responded and he and all of them took off as fast as they could.

As they made their way there, so was Miu and the Juken Club, who all heard the explosion from where they were at. Miu took off like a bullet and the Juken Club simply hopped the school wall to save some time. "What the hell was that just now?" Bob asked.

"I think that was Souichiro-sama!" Aya replied.

However, Miu wasn't that far ahead of them and she heard what Aya just said. The granddaughter of the Invincible Superman came to a halt and turned around to face the Juken Club, who weren't paying attention to her as they were about to pass her by. "Wait!" she yelled.

However, Miu was promptly ignored. The Juken Club continued to follow Aya as they went towards the Karate Club building. Miu followed after them, intent on getting answers.

While they were doing that, Nijima and the others got there first, bursting right through the doors. "I can't believe I overlooked this. I was so focused on making sure the other captains got home safely that I neglected Kenichi!" Nijima thought.

And that was when he saw Kenichi lying on the floor. "General," Matsui muttered, but Nijima ignored him and crouched down and placed his head against Kenichi's chest.

His eyes widened. "It stopped."

"What?" Matsui asked.

Nijima whirled around so fast that Matsui, Daimonji behind him and another Shinpaku member to his right nearly jumped back. "He's not breathing!" Nijima yelled.

"What!" the three yelled.

Nijima immediately began to perform CPR on Kenichi. "Damn it, don't die on me! Don't die!" he yelled. "I didn't think you'd give up because of something as minor as this, Kenichi! The foundation of my ambitions is dying!"

Matsui and the other Shinpaku member were in shock; they never would have thought they'd see their general look so distressed. Daimonji was just as surprised as them as well. However, their surprise grew more when they saw Nijima begin to move his head closer to Kenichi's. "You shall receive it! That which can restore life even to mummies, from the sinister Nijima style of artificial respiration, the Devil's Kiss!"

Nijima puckered his lips as he was about to execute this 'technique' of his. "Come back to life!"

However, right before Nijima could go through with this, Apachai came running in through the hole that Souchiro had made, his arm extending a bit out to the above his head, chipping off a small piece of what remained of the wall. Said piece flew right at Nijima, hitting him square in the forehead and knocking him back.

To Apachai's left suddenly came Akisame. It seemed that the two masters had somehow known what happened and came to the rescue. "It's time for emergency course, quickest route! We'll see what else to do afterwards," Akisame said.

It was this time that the Juken Club and Miu right behind them came in through the door. All of their eyes widened at the scene, Miu most of all. "K-Kenichi!" she cried upon seeing him.

"Kenichi-san?" Masataka muttered, wide-eyed. He certainly wasn't expecting to see him again so soon and in such a state too. He also immediately recognized Akisame, but not Apachai or the others there.

The rest of the Juken Club spared Masataka a glance and then looked at Kenichi's prone form. "That's the Kenichi guy, senpai?" Bob asked.

"Y-Yeah," Masataka responded dumbly.

Aya deactivated her Dragon's Eye upon arriving there. "Just what is going on?" she asked no one in particular.

All eyes then focused on Akisame, Miu rushing over to his side in case she was needed. She felt tears form in her eyes a bit as she got closer just in time for Akisame to swiftly tear Kenichi's shirt off, showing off the wound he had in the center of his chest.

"We were watching from outside the building, but we had to make sure we weren't interfering in a fight between disciples," Akisame said. Inwardly though, he couldn't help but wonder about Souichiro, whom he and Apachai saw show up. They were quite stunned to say the least when they first felt his Ki and by what he did afterwards, thus the reason why he reacted to this current situation so slowly; Souichiro had actually managed to stun the masters into a sort of trance with his otherworldly power.

"Since it was done so perfectly, there's been some loss of time," Akisame then said as he focused back on the matter at hand, rolling up his right sleeve as he raised his arm.

Then, without any warning, Akisame slammed his fist right into Kenichi's gut. The Juken Club was shocked and so was Miu, who brought her hands up to her mouth as she had never seen a treatment like this before. Matsui and Daimonji were freaking out as Akisame then began to move his hand at a blur.

"Whoa, it's some kind of crazy heart massage!" Matsui cried out.

Several seconds later though, Kenichi seemed to come back to life, letting out a gasp of fresh air. "Ah, it made him breathe again!" Daimonji exclaimed.

"Fuh, this time had been the most dangerous time yet," Akisame commented.

"Kenichi!" Miu said as she was immediately by his side, taking him in her arms a bit.

"Apa, it's a new near death record!" Apachai said.

Akisame ignored his words and instead placed a hand on Nijima, who had been knocked out when the debris had struck his head. "Nijima-kun, although it was nonsensical, your first-aid treatment was effective," he complimented. And then Akisame addressed Daimonji next. "And Daimonji-kun, was it?"

Daimonji straightened up at being addressed by the Jujitsu master. "Y-Yeah?"

Akisame turned around. "We saw everything you did. You're a brave young man."

Daimonji, upon hearing this compliment, covered his face with his hands. "You're wrong, I did everything wrong! It was because of me that Shirahama was lured out here and ended up like this!"

Akisame stood up and placed a hand on his shoulder. "Since it's YOMI, it couldn't be helped. You hurried around for our disciple's aid. Instead, I would like to thank you on Ryozanpaku's behalf." His words proved to be touching and Daimonji kneeled to the floor as he tried to hold back tears.

"That's right, the real bad guys aren't here," Apachai commented, a serious expression on his usually cheerful face.

"Anyways, now that Kenichi-kun is safe, is there a reason why you are here, Masataka-kun? I wasn't expecting to see you again so soon," Akisame said as he now looked at the Juken Club, who had been silent this whole time, in shock over Akisame's sudden treatment of Kenichi.

The Juken Club flinched under Akisame's stern gaze. And when he addressed them, Apachai, Miu, Nijima who was just woken up courtesy of Matsui slapping him awake, and the others looked at them.

Looks like they were going to have to answer quite a few questions.

* * *

And done! Wow, this chapter is certainly longer than I anticipated.

I originally planned to end this chapter with Kenichi being 'killed', but then decided to end it this way. Maybe it was for the better as I felt it made for a better ending. Oh yeah, I'm going to have things spicing up very soon now.

Hope you enjoyed this chapter and as always be sure to review!


	10. Chapter 10

Ah man, the heat is picking up here in Southern California. Well, at least it gets nice and cool during the night, especially with a breeze going on recently. Sure hope it stays this way; I just can't deal with heat at all. Makes me wonder sometimes if people like me have some kind of strange relation to Mr. Freeze or something.

Anyways, here is the next chapter. Hope you enjoy!

Chapter 10

After having saved Kenichi from certain death, everyone save for Daimonji, Matsui and the other Shinpaku member went to Ryozanpaku.

The Juken Club couldn't help but fidget a bit in nervousness as they sat down in the large dining area of the dojo as Akisame and Miu took Kenichi to his room to recover. The reason why they were nervous was because right now they were currently being looked at by Shigure, Sakaki, Apachai and Kensei, all of whom were staring very seriously at them. Masataka and the rest of the Juken Club, having heard of the four masters' famous exploits were nervous because if any of the tales they've heard were even remotely true, getting on their bad side even by accident could be bad for their health. Bob was the only one of the club who hasn't heard of the Ryozanpaku masters before though, but was nervous nonetheless due to the massive amount of Ki Sakaki was releasing due to him having seen the state Kenichi was in as they got back to the dojo.

Minutes later, Akisame and Miu returned, the latter having quickly changed out of her school clothes and into something more comfortable: a white blouse and short, easy-to-move-in black skirt. Nijima for his part, was sitting off in the far corner, not wanting to get close enough for Shigure to turn her attention onto him; he's had plenty of times already being chased around the place by her already.

But the alien boy's expression changed from one of comical fear of Shigure at the memories to one of complete seriousness. Earlier today, he had nearly lost quite possibly the only person that he could call his best friend despite their dysfunctional relationship and this was nearly accomplished at the hands of YOMI. "Maybe, I'll get the answers I want here," he thought as he looked over the members of the Juken Club.

He first sized up Masataka, taking particular note of the scar on his face and the mechanical hand first. He didn't seem like much due to his relatively lean build and his style of wear, consisting of a dark blue shirt with an unrecognizable logo on it and black pants, but Nijima learned long ago to never judge a book by its cover.

Nijima then looked at Aya, sitting close to Masataka. He first noted that the brown haired girl was quite developed, having a bust easily larger than Miu's and rather pronounced due to the white halter top she wore. However, despite his unintentional appreciation of Aya's highly feminine build, it was clear that she was fighter based off of the vibe he was picking up off of her.

Then he focused on Maya, raising a single eyebrow at her white, almost silver hair and her very similar figure to Aya, only even more well-developed and shown off by a snug white shirt and light blue shorts. But there was something about her that Nijima couldn't quite put his finger on that suggested to him that she was one of the strongest of the group if not the strongest. "Better watch out for that one," he thought.

Up next was Kagesada. Nijima seemed to nod his head, somehow able to recognize that this guy, like him, was the type to run away if things got too out of hand. Nijima wasn't far off the mark as Kagesada was indeed like that, though not as much after having rejoined the Juken Club all that time ago. Pushing this thought aside though, Nijima immediately noticed that Kagesada was quite tall, possibly one of the tallest people he's ever seen within his age group. His lanky build, like with Mastaka, didn't make him seem that strong, especially with the way his black long sleeve dress shirt seemed to hang off of his frame, but like with the others, Nijima isn't going to rule out anything.

Not too far behind Kagesada sat Bob, who greatly interested Nijima, mainly due to the fact that it was very obvious he was a foreigner. Bob's short bleached hair allowed for Nijima to get a good look at his disgruntled looking face and the alien boy couldn't help but feel a bit scared of the piercing on his lip. Bob's height, easily rivaling that of Kagesada's, combined with his clearly muscular physique shown off by a black tank top and navy blue jeans, wasn't putting Nijima at ease either.

Shivering slightly at Bob's appearance, Nijima then turned to focus on the last member of the Juken Club: Shinichiro. Upon laying eyes on the short teen, Nijima's eyes widened. "I have found my long lost relative!" he thought comically happy as he took in the teen's abnormally large and ovalish head and large alien-like eyes. Even though Shinichiro was dressed in a grey shirt with a band logo on it, a blue jacket, and black pants, it did little to detract from his alien-like appearance.

"For some reason," all of the Juken Club members thought at the same time, "I feel this sudden urge to punch that guy," they thought, referring to Nijima without even turning around to look at him. Shinichiro in particular felt that he had somehow been insulted by the Shinpaku Alliance general and wished to knock the guy out. The only thing holding them back was fear of the masters in front of them.

They were snapped out of their thoughts when Akisame spoke. "Now then, we'd like to hear from you what this is all about," he calmly said.

The Juken Club members nodded in unison, figuring to just get this over with and hope nothing they said would anger the masters. But before telling them all what this was about, Masataka decided to ask a question first. "How is Kenichi-san doing?" he asked, genuinely concerned for the Ryozanpaku disciple. He may have only known him for not even a full day, but he could tell that Kenichi was a nice guy.

"He's doing fine now. Despite the hits he took, he should make a full recovery within a few days of rest," Akisame replied. He then took a few steps towards the Juken Club. "Now how about you introduce yourselves before we really do start," he said.

The Juken Club, seeing no problem with this, began to do so. "Takayangi Masataka." When Masataka introduced himself, Akisame, Sakaki, and Kensei shared a very brief look of recognition, having heard of the Takayanagi family before.

"Natsume Aya," Aya said, bowing low in respect to the masters.

"Natsume Maya," Maya said next, doing the same as her sister.

"Sugano Kagesada," Kagesada said in as serious a voice as he can manage, bowing as well.

"Makihara Bob," Bob told the Ryozanpaku masters, bowing, but nowhere near as much as the others simply because he knew that if he didn't, the captain would probably get angry at him.

"Kurei Shinichiro," the last member of the Juken Club said, bowing just like the others.

As the Juken Club members introduced themselves one by one, Nijima made it a point to remember all of their names, intent on getting some information on them later when he gets back to either his home or the Shinpaku Alliance base.

The Ryozanpaku masters for their part, simply nodded in response, Apachai letting out a signature "Apa," in response as he waved at them.

"Thank you," Akisame said. "Now I can already assume that you know who we are already though," he added with a twinkle of amusement in his eyes.

The Juken Club members nodded save for Bob, but he decided not to point out his lack of knowledge on them.

"But we've never heard of you. No offense," Maya said to Miu as she looked at her.

"Furinji Miu. It's a pleasure to meet you," Miu replied as she bowed in greetings to them.

"Furinji… Furinji…" Maya, Aya, Masataka, and Shinichiro thought, swearing that the name sounded very familiar.

Miu looked around the room real quick at that moment. "Where's grandpa? I thought he'd be here for this?" Miu asked, wondering where her grandpa Hayato was at. Surely he must have some inkling of what's going on.

"Right here," Hayato then said as he entered the dojo from outside. "Sorry for being late. I had to run a quick errand," he said humorously, stroking his beard with a grin on his face.

When the Juken Club turned their heads to look at the Invincible Superman, they gained an expression of shock and had their own thoughts. "Holy shit, this guy is huge!" Bob and Kagesada thought.

However, the others were in shock as they realized who he was. "Wait, Furinji as in Furinji Hayato, the Invincible Superman!" Maya, Aya, Masataka, and Shinichiro thought at the same time. They now felt completely and utterly screwed; they have heard many tales of the tall elderly man and all of the stories they've heard were definitely the stuff of legend. They suddenly felt that if things did go bad for them for whatever reason, chances are they'd never be able to move ever again without experiencing great pain; the stories of Hayato weren't exactly the sort of thing to inspire confidence in someone about to fight him. Or at least try to fight him.

"Grandpa, Kenichi is-!" Miu exclaimed out of frustration of the situation. Her best friend was nearly killed today and here her only blood relative in Ryozanpaku had apparently been out enjoying himself while it had happened.

"I know," Hayato said, cutting Miu off, "Akisame sent Apachai to tell me right after you left the school."

That made Miu and the Juken Club blink in surprise. "So that was where Apachai went," Miu thought, the Muay Thai master having taken off after Akisame had revived Kenichi and told him something. This was clearly what Apachai had been sent to do.

Hayato then faced the Juken Club, a serious expression on his face. The Juken Club gulped as Hayato's eyes were shining a bright white, much like when he and the other masters were eager to put Kenichi through new training sessions. "Now then, can you please tell us what you know?" Hayato asked in a rather quiet yet serious tone of voice.

And after that, Maya, speaking for the Juken Club, went on to tell the Ryozanpaku residents of everything that they knew, explaining it all from the very beginning when Souichiro first came to Toudou Academy and everything that has occurred since then, Aya, Masataka, and Shinichiro helping her out every now and then to fill in some more details. They also spoke of Shin and the incident that had occurred with him two years prior to Souchiro coming around.

The whole time, the masters and Miu were completely silent, though as they listened to the story, they felt more and more shocked by everything they were hearing. A guy that has lived for centuries if not longer? People possessing supernatural abilities? These were just some of the things currently being told that had their minds having a hard time grasping and it showed through their facial expressions. The only people that looked like they were not reacting to what they were told were Hayato, Akisame, and Shigure, the three of them being pros at stoic expressions during situations like this.

The Juken Club, for their part, were feeling a bit more relieved as they spoke. At first, they were quick to jump into telling them what they knew simply because the look Hayato had when he asked them to explain scared them crapless. Now however as they spoke, they felt as if some kind of burden was being lifted off of them as now they might have more allies in this matter and powerful allies at that too.

Nijima, for his part, was still in the corner, his expression a perfect example of shock. And to think that people had a problem with him looking like an alien; everything he was hearing right now made him look plain and boring in comparison. "Just what kind of people are they?" he wondered, amazed at what they've been through so far and within a year or so too! He was glad that they weren't on YOMI's side otherwise, things would have turned out very badly for him and the Shinpaku Alliance.

Hours past as the Juken Club spoke and it was easily late at night by the time they felt that everything worth telling was said. "…and this is just about the point we're at right now," Maya concluded, feeling a little tired from all of the talking, but much better too.

The Ryozanpaku masters, Miu, and Nijima were completely silent as they began to fully digest every last detail. "Damn," Sakaki muttered as he scratched the back of his head. This was quite the problem that was on hand right now and he really never was one for words when describing how he felt about such things.

"Hmm, I thought as much," Akisame said, much to the surprise of just about everyone there save for Hayato. At their shocked gazes, he spoke again. "I remember once meeting someone with an unearthly ability before. Though it was only him that I met, I figured that it wouldn't be too hard to imagine that more like him existed."

Hayato stroked his beard as he nodded in agreement. "I myself have met some individuals like that too." He looked at Maya, his expression less serious than before, but still meant business. "However, the few I did meet were certainly nothing like the red feather you have encountered."

Maya nodded. "Yeah, I kind of figured as much. Some tend to be more diverse in power than others," she said.

Hayato looked a bit thoughtful of that. "Still, quite the situation here." He paused for a moment. "Is there a chance of this Sohaku gaining control of the boy's body?" he asked.

The Juken Club members shared a brief look with one another before shaking their heads in unison. "No, I don't think so. When we managed to get inside Nagi's mindscape, we were able to stab him with the Reiki and that seemed to have quite the effect on Sohaku," Shinichiro said recalling when it took all of the Juken Club to pierce Sohaku with the supernatural blade. "It should have weakened his influence on Nagi's mind and if he hasn't gone on a rampage just yet, then it's safe to say that Sohaku is still weakened by the blade."

The masters looked deep in thought. Nijima rubbed his chin, wondering how this could be a huge advantage if Souichiro did do anything else. Miu looked to be in the same boat as Nijima, though she was more curious about how to stop him. After seeing what happened to Kenichi and slowly getting over her shock of this story just now, the blond girl can't help but wonder if it would be possible to stop Sohaku and purge Souichiro of his powers just like the Juken Club had tried before.

"How did your attempted purge backfire anyhow?" Kensei asked, speaking up for the first time, getting a nod of agreement from Miu and Nijima. Apachai, Sakaki, and Shigure simply looked lost still over this matter.

Maya sighed. "Well, at first, we didn't have the slightest clue. But now that we think of it, it seemed obvious how."

"And that would be…?" Miu asked.

Aya answered her question. "Apparently, after we stabbed him with the Reiki, Sohaku anticipated us trying something like that and set up some sort of strange barrier," she said.

"Whoa, wait up. A barrier?" Sakaki asked, raising his hand slightly in confusion.

"Something like that. This barrier took the Ki that I had fired into Nagi and seemed to have twisted it to his own purpose, resulting in some kind of attack that knocked the captain and Aya right out of Nagi's mindscape," Masataka said without hesitation, him, Maya, and Shinichiro having discussed this and coming to this conclusion not long after Souichiro had gotten away.

Shinichiro nodded in confirmation of this. "Not only that, but this attack seemed to extend to outside the mindscape as well because not long after Maya and Aya were knocked out, Souichiro ended up destroying the entire building that we were in."

The room fell silent as everyone digested this. "Would it still be possible to take out Sohaku?" Miu asked after a moment of silence, her question surprising everyone at how serious she sounded when the words left her mouth. However, Hayato and Akisame knew why she was asking that question really, noting that it was mainly out of concern for Kenichi. If Sohaku ever managed to gain control of Souichiro, she didn't want Kenichi to be in immediate danger since he's already had the very bad luck of bumping into him.

"Don't know. We can't be sure if the barrier was a one-time thing or not," Maya replied several seconds later.

Miu simply nodded and took a few steps back so that the Ryozanpaku masters were at the forefront again, all of whom looked deathly serious now over this matter. From what they have been able to gather from what they've just been told, Souichiro is easily around their level in terms of physical ability and the many red feather abilities he had easily put him at a level above them too. If Sohaku ever managed to take control of him and rampage, they doubted anyone would be able to stop him if he were to use the abilities accordingly.

Maya bowed low before the masters, taking them by surprise. "I know we shouldn't be asking this of you, but if you can offer us any help in stopping him, we would be in your debt," she said.

At first, the masters showed no reaction to this, mainly due to them being rather surprised by her bowing, but then slowly but surely, the other members of the Juken Club bowed as well, Bob being the last to do so as he wasn't entirely sure of just what to do.

A tense moment past before the masters responded. "Well, when you ask so graciously, how can we refuse?" The Juken Club looked up from their positions to Akisame, who had his eyes closed, but a small smile on his face. "After all, with the boy being a part of YOMI, this is a situation meant for both our groups."

The Juken Club looked around and saw Hayato smiling, Sakaki smirking, Kensei having a smile similar to Akisame's on his face, Sigure nodding, and Apachai doing his signature "Apa!" in agreement. Miu herself also gave the group a determined nod.

They all bowed. "Thank you very much!" the Juken Club said in unison. All of them had a smile on their faces, especially Aya, eager to get Souichiro back to normal.

Hayato laughed wholeheartedly, lightening the mood of the room. "Don't worry about it! It's always nice to help people out. And in this case, we really must stay together; as long as the boy is with YOMI and Yami, things will be far too hard for us to handle divided," he said, getting more serious with the last sentence.

Everyone nodded in agreement, but then the Juken Club, Miu, and Nijima, still in the corner, felt very unnerved when the eyes of the Ryozanpaku masters began to glow ominously. "And if Kenichi-kun is to survive this entire ordeal," Akisame began in an eerily calm voice, "he is going to have train much, much more," he finished, the smallest of smiles on the Philosophical Jujitsu master. The other masters had smiles of their own save for Shigure. But Hayato's smile freaked out the teens the most.

Hayato laughed rather evilly. "Many apologies in advance Ken-chan, but this will be for your own good." He laughed a little more after that, making the teens gulp in fear.

"That dude is so dead," Bob whispered.

"Yeah," Kagesada whispered back from where he sat.

Meanwhile, Kenichi, still unconscious in his room, shivered in his sleep.

* * *

Done! Hmm, I had originally planned for this scene to be shorter and incorporate more of the HSDK manga into this chapter, but it turned out longer than expected. But next chapter, it'll get back on track and I'll be getting the Juken Club more involved in the events that will follow.

Sorry that it's really just one big talking chapter, but I hope you liked it anyway.

As always, thanks for reading and don't forget to review!


	11. Chapter 11

Wow, I just realized how fast I've been getting out chapters recently. First there were the last few chapters of Devil Apocalypse and now here I am with already a few chapters of To Fight a God done within several days of each other! Wow, while job-hunting is disheartening, I have to say this kind of benefit of much free time is helpful!

Aside from that, here is the next chapter!

Chapter 11

After having gotten the agreement of help from Ryozanpaku, the Juken Club said their good-byes to the masters and took their leave for the night to head back to their hotel. Nijima followed their lead, heading home to think over everything he's learned.

The night quickly gave way to the next day, which was a weekend day and so now Miu was currently walking home from doing errands all day with Apachai helping her out, rather anxious to get home to check on Kenichi, who had spent the entire night unconscious. The blonde was quick to slam open the gates to Ryozanpaku with a powerful palm thrust and make her way inside.

"We're home!" she yelled as she and Apachai made their way inside the dojo, Sakaki happily reaching out to the bag that Apachai had in his left hand, trying to find a newly bought beer. "How is Kenichi's condition?" she asked Hayato, who happened to be in the same room they had entered.

The Invincible Superman stroked his beard. "Hmm, about that…" he trailed off as Miu and Apachai now actually entered the building.

And that was when they saw Kenichi. Conscious. Not only that, but the teen was up and furiously launching punch after vicious punch at the air yelling. "Ah, damn you Koukin!" he yelled.

His sister Honoka was also there, out of worry for her big brother, and that concern was still evident in her voice as she tried to get his attention. "Onii-chan, you have to sleep!" she cried, hoping that he would listen and rest some more.

"Well, as you can see, he's so energetic that it's a bit of a bother," Hayato said to Miu who was quite shocked to see Kenichi moving around after only a day especially when she considered just how much damage his body took.

Miu however was quickly focused on Kenichi again when he suddenly held his chest in pain, apparently having overstrained himself. Her and Honoka rushed forward in a comical fashion, completely overcome with worry for the Ryozanpaku disciple. However, both stopped and took several steps back when Kenichi looked at them. "There's nothing wrong!" he yelled nearly at the top of his lungs.

Sakaki, having just come inside after getting his beer, twitched in annoyance and walked up to Kenichi. As soon as he was within range, Sakaki let loose with a punch to the top of Kenichi's head, knocking him to the floor with ease. "Dumbass! What kind of asshole yells at people who are worried about him!" he growled out.

Miu rushed forward and knelt next to Kenich, her and Honoka crying out for Kenichi. The blonde took Kenichi into her arms, resting his head against her chest while she glared lightly at Sakaki, the effect of the glare diminished slightly due to the small amount of tears in her eyes.

Sakaki was still affected however. "Well, since it's an injury in his heart, this ain't nothing," he commented.

"What are you saying! He's at the border of life and death!" Miu shot back.

"Yeah! Yeah!" Honoka yelled in agreement.

Miu turned to Kenich. "Hang in there Kenichi," she said softly, not noticing that he was awake now and had small trickle of blood coming down his nose as the brown-haired teen realized where his head was resting.

He suddenly jumped back, almost in fright, much to the confusion of the girls. "Be gone, evil thoughts!" he thought to himself, slapping both of his cheeks to banish what had come to his mind.

But then he got serious and immediately faced Sakaki. "Sakaki-shishou! I would like some personal training!" he said.

Sakaki smirked at this. Quickly finishing off his beer, he crushed the can in his hands and tossed it to the side. "Good idea! Wanna go right now?"

Miu, quickly grabbing a recycle container to catch the flying beer can, looked very worried now. "But it's still too early for sparring!" She was very scared here; Kenichi had barely been out for a full day and here he was wanting to rush back into training. She didn't care how well Akisame's treatment worked on Kenichi, it was still too soon for him to want to do anything even remotely like training.

"I'm fine, Miu-san. I got a full night's sleep. And whatever Koetsuji-sensei did to me to keep me alive really worked its magic," Kenichi said, hoping to placate the blond girl. "Besides…" he trailed off.

Miu and Sakaki looked at him, confused. "What's wrong?" Miu asked.

When Kenichi answered, his voice was a bit quieter. "That Souichiro guy… I don't know why, but when he struck me, I seemed to feel a bit of his emotions or something… he seemed kinda sad." Miu and Sakaki didn't know how to react to that so they just simply remained silent as Kenichi continued again. "It's as if he's doing all of this against his will," Kenichi said, suddenly sounding more determined, "now that I know for a fact that he isn't such a bad guy, I think I should at least try to help him! After all, YOMI is probably just using him!"

He then proceeded to put on his usual training gi. "And with YOMI still in the area, I can't just laze around! I gotta sharpen my skills even more!"

"Well, if you mean the Muay Thai user, Tirawit Koukin, he's already transferred schools. I stopped by the Shinpaku Alliance headquarters earlier today in between errands and Nijima had checked their school files and saw this," Miu said.

Kenichi clenched his fist in comical rage, remembering someone who had managed to beat him and then take off before Kenichi could demand a rematch. "But what about Boris and the others?" he asked.

"They're still students at our school. And at headquarters, everyone was there and they had been keeping an eye out for them, but saw no sign of them," Miu answered.

Hayato, still in the room, stepped forward. "Well then, with that out of the way, Kenichi did say he was fully healed. Let's give him a chance to train."

"Grandfather?" Miu asked, curious and worried.

Hayato shrugged her questioning glance off and instead addressed Akisame, who was standing just several feet away. "Well, Akisame?"

Akisame nodded. "Yes. You could say his body is just fine…" he began.

In the meantime, as he spoke, Kenichi and Sakaki prepared for their spar. "Yosh! Come on, Kenichi!" Sakaki yelled enthusiastically, drawing his left fist back while his right arm move forward, assuming his usual Karate stance.

Kenichi did likewise. "Alright, here I come!" He then charged forward at Sakaki and let out a battle yell as he began to reel his right fist back. Sakaki, however, being a master, did so as well, but at much greater speeds than Kenichi and so his fist was already halfway to Kenichi's face. When Kenichi saw the fist coming, his eyes closed and his whole body tensed.

This didn't go unnoticed by Sakaki. The Karate master subtly slowed his punch, allowing Kenichi enough time to stop flinching and bring up his left arm to deflect the punch away. After the aborted attack, Sakaki slowly brought back his right fist and broke out of his stance. "What's wrong? Let's continue!" Kenichi said as Sakaki then began to turn around and walk away.

"No. It looks like you really couldn't do this yet," Sakaki commented, much to Kenichi's confusion.

Akisame and Hayato shared a knowing glance before leaving the room themselves, leaving Kenichi, Miu, and Honoka standing there in confusion over what just happened. But minutes later, Kenichi decided to try and practice his jujitsu on the stone statues he always practiced on, much to the protests of both Miu and Honoka.

The masters, however, were quick to assemble in another room right after this, Hayato, Akisame, Apachai, Kensei, and Sakaki all sitting together in a circle. Shigure was currently nowhere to be seen. "That punk closed his eyes while we sparred," Sakaki said as he shifted his sitting position a bit.

"As we expected, he has become fearful. Terror has taken up residence in his heart," Akisame said next.

Kensei nodded in agreement. "Yes. Though his body has healed rather nicely since yesterday thanks to us, that YOMI punk and the Souichiro boy has planted the seed of terror in his heart. This is fatal to martial artists. I know a lot of people who have returned from life or death combat with the seed of terror in their hearts and as a result, left the world of martial arts."

Apachai spoke next. "Apa, whenever Kenichi spars with Apachai, he gets close to death. But he always remains calm, so he should be okay this time too!" he said, optimistic about the situation.

Kensei lightly shook his head. "Whenever you put him in a near-death state, Apachai, you lack the intent to kill him. But when there is true killing intent, you can destroy your opponent's heart."

"And just what should we do about it? It looks like the guy hasn't realized it himself yet and if we try using every trick in the book, he'll disappear on us?" Sakaki asked.

"We do nothing. It's a trauma that could last a long time, possibly something that will remain in his heart for the rest of his life," Akisame responded in all seriousness.

"We should definitely rehabilitate him soon. But how are we going to deal with this problem in such a short amount of time…?" Kensei wondered aloud.

The masters sat in silence, pondering this until Hayato let out a hearty laugh. "It's not as hard as you think everyone!" the Invincible Superman said. "To overcome fear, use fear! Isn't that how he's done things until now, over and over again?"

"But this time he fought YOMI and received a wound to his heart and in such a short amount of time…" Akisame replied, but trailed off when he saw the look in Hayato's eyes.

"But have you forgotten? That very capable person who is always trying to conquer fear!" Hayato exclaimed.

In no time at all after that, Hayato was quick to get Kenichi to come with him to see Shigure. Though when the two walked into Shigure's room, Kenichi nearly passed out, for when they entered Shigure was in the process of changing her clothes. The weapons master didn't seem to mind the sudden intrusion though. "Eh? Do you… want something?" she asked.

"Oh my," Hayato said as he and Kenichi spun around and waited outside the door to give the young woman some privacy.

"If you're changing clothes, please say so! I only opened the door because the trap was released!" Kenichi yelled as he tried to banish all thoughts that had come to mind.

"Ah, sorry," Shigure said in her usual quiet and devoid of emotion voice. "But, I was about to… go," she said, as she sheathed a sword and placed it on a stand for other swords.

"Sword hunting," she elaborated as she finished up changing.

"Uh, uh, the Elder told me to go sword hunting with you!" Kenichi said in a hurry.

"That's not entirely… necessary. I can protect myself. Because the place I'm going to… is really a trap," Shigure replied as she put on a large coat over her usual outfit, though when she did, Kenichi briefly saw several weapons hidden away in pockets of the inside of the coat.

"That's okay. I'm asking you to take him with you. It's an established practice," Hayato said with a smile.

"I don't wanna go!" Kenichi thought as he cowered on the floor. He has never really been able to get over usage of weapons and knowing Shigure the way he did, then any enemies encountered would use nothing but weapons and to startling effect too.

Shigure stepped over him as she went to leave. "I'll be waiting in the… genkan," she said. If Kenichi had looked up, he would have seen the weapons master pump her fist in some sort of triumph.

Hayato nodded and then started to stroke his beard as he suddenly thought of something else. "Hmm, and maybe there is someone else that can go along with you as well," he pondered aloud.

Kenichi and Shigure both stopped what they were doing and looked at him. "Who?" Kenichi asked, having been informed a bit on the Juken Club when he had woken up and before Miu had come home. He had, however, not been informed just yet of what the Juken Club had gone through, the masters figuring that it wouldn't do to work him up even more as of yet.

"That brown haired girl. I believe her name was Natsume Aya if I recall correctly," Hayato said thinking back to when the Juken Club introduced themselves.

Shigure thought about this for a moment before nodding in agreement, while Kenichi looked a little lost. "Er, not that I don't mind someone else tagging along, but why her?" he asked.

"Before they left, we were able to find out what kind of martial art styles that they practice," Hayato began, "and Aya-chan is a sword user, which makes her perfect for this kind of trip. And it would do well to try and improve our relationship with the Juken Club now that we are allies," he surmised.

"R-Right," Kenichi said.

Hayato stood up, having been sitting this entire time. "I think I'll give them a call. The one named Shinichiro was nice enough to give us his phone number to contact him."

Meanwhile, as Hayato prepared to do that, the Juken Club was with the Shinpaku Alliance at the latter's headquarters, Miu and Nijima having thought it necessary to introduce them to the group so that potential mix-ups could be avoided. The Juken Club had been introduced to the main members of the Shinpaku Alliance earlier in the morning when the meeting was called after Nijima had called up Shinichiro to arrange the meeting. It had been a most interesting yet almost dangerous first meeting as Nijima had accidently started things off by saying that the Juken Club knew Souichiro, which made most of the Shinpaku Alliance members, such as Takeda, Ukita, Kisara, and a few others get the wrong idea. Thankfully, Nijima and Maya were able to keep things from dissolving into a mess, mainly Maya via grabbing a nearby yard stick Nijima used for mapping out attack/defense plans on a map and slicing through a few walls with a casual Ki-powered swing, courtesy of the training she had put herself through. Needless to say, both groups settled down, the Juken Club mainly because they knew that things were now back under control and the Shinpaku Alliance because they were both amazed and rather scared of Maya's impressive attack.

After that, they had been able to get things to go much more smoothly as the Juken Club had then began to tell them all what they had told Ryozanpaku. They needed all the help they can get in this situation and for that, they felt it best to just come clean with the truth from the get-go. As they had expected, everyone save for Nijima were quite shocked over everything said. They had known that Souichiro was a unique person, but never to such an extent as what they had just been told.

All in all, this was a gathering that had definitely been both very surprising and beneficial to both sides as now the Juken Club could count the Shinpaku Alliance as their allies while the latter now had a better grasp of just what they may go up against.

"Damn!" Takeda and Ukita had muttered in unison. They both found it a good thing to have not tried to attack YOMI as soon as they had shown up at school otherwise they wouldn't have been here.

"So yeah, that's the situation," Maya, the one to have explained the whole thing, said.

The Shinpaku Alliance was dead silent. Aside from what Takeda and Ukita just said, there really was no word they can use to describe their shock.

And that was when Shinichiro's cellphone rang. Reaching into his pocket and pulling out his cell with one swift motion, the short alien-like teen answered it. "Hello?" he said. A second later, he continued. "Ah, Furinji-san, it's good to hear from you," he said, speaking to Hayato. He was silent for about a minute or two as Hayato told him about Shigure's and Kenichi's planned trip. "I'll let her know," Shinichiro replied after Hayato was done.

Turning towards Aya, Shinichiro told her what the call was about. He briefly said how it was a sword hunt and that it was a good opportunity for the newly formed relationship between them and Ryozanpaku to grow. Aya looked at her sister and the rest of the Juken Club and when Maya nodded in acknowledgement, Aya faced Shinichiro and said that she'll go.

Shinichiro nodded. "She's on her way," he said. He and Hayato then said their goodbyes and he hung up just in time to see Aya bid her goodbyes to the Shinpaku Alliance before quickly leaving, but not before Shinichiro told her where exactly to go.

The Shinpaku Alliance on their part looked rather stunned at the very sudden development. "That certainly was… unexpected," Kaname commented. Hibiki and Yuma nodded in agreement from where they stood beside her.

"Getting back on topic," Nijima said a moment later, getting everyone's attention, "I think we can all agree that this is something we need to work together on right?" he said.

Everyone nodded. "Yes. This has quickly gone beyond anything we could have handled on our own," Kaname said.

"Still, to think that Souichiro guy had gone through all of that," Takeda said, rubbing his chin. He had been rather scared of the guy, but after hearing the Juken Club's story, he couldn't help but feel sorry for what Souichiro has had to go through. He couldn't imagine how it'd be to have someone trying to literally take over his mind.

"Yeah," Ukita muttered.

Shinichiro then spoke up. "Anyways, I think it would be best for now to just keep doing what you're doing. That is, keeping an eye out for YOMI. We'll also help out with this task," he said, getting some nods from both groups. "Nagi, for the meantime, should just be left alone and avoided until we can figure out if he is stronger than before or not. If he has gained anymore red feathers, then we need to be very careful since we've never even figured out what kind of abilities he had before too."

"Just how many abilities does he have anyway?" Nijima asked, ignoring the looks the Shinpaku members gave him and Shinichiro, wondering if maybe the two were brothers or something. "I already know for one that he can summon lightning," he said, shivering in remembrance of how he came to know this particular detail.

Masataka shrugged in Shinichiro's place. "We honestly don't know. From the info we do have though, he definitely has more than a hundred. And possibly even higher than that."

The members of the Shinpaku Alliance save for Miu, Tanimoto – who had once again been dragged against his will there though that attitude changed after the Juken Club had started speaking – and Kaname, shivered. More than a hundred abilities? That was an unvoiced thought they all had at the same time.

"Alright," Nijima replied, satisfied by the fact that they were now making some headway in this.

But then Miu raised a point. "But how will you be able to watch YOMI if you're not a part of our school? Unless you plan to sneak in," she said.

Maya and Shinichiro shared a look. "We'll think of something. We'll sneak around if we have to, but if that doesn't really work out, then we can always use Mitsuomi's influence to get us into your school," Maya said.

"Who's Mitsuomi?" Miu asked, confused. The name has come up in the Juken Club's story, but aside from his part in the whole thing, they never actually said who he really was.

Masataka was about to answer, but surprisingly Nijima spoke. "He's the current head of the Takayanagi family and is the older brother of this guy here," he said, pointing a finger at Masataka.

Everyone was surprised, save for the Juken Club, who were shocked. "How did you know that?" Masataka practically demanded.

Nijima got a sheepish expression on his face, backing away in fear in case he pissed them off. "Last night, I basically went into overdrive and tried to dig up as much info on you guys as I can." He eyed Bob. "For example, I know that him and Souichiro were called the Knuckle Bombs and went around beating the crap out of people at different schools."

Bob twitched at that, though he had to admit, it did bring up some good memories of him and Souichiro just doing what they loved best: causing havoc. "Don't see why we don't just take down these YOMI guys right now instead of just letting them mess shit up even more," he mumbled.

Maya sighed. "For all we know, that could just cause more problems than it's worth. I mean, I doubt that the rest of YOMI, wherever they are, would take something like that lying down," she said, berating Bob slightly.

"And besides, if we go against YOMI right now, we could end up at risk ourselves with Nagi," Shinichiro pointed out.

Bob grumbled. Kagesada just shook his head. "Man, this is all messed up," he muttered, running a hand through his hair.

The room was quiet for a minute or two as everyone simply digest everything said and began to plan things out a bit. "So we are all agreed on this?" Nijima asked, looking from the Shinpaku Alliance to the Juken Club. When they all nodded, he spoke again. "Then I think that's enough for now," he said. And with that, the meeting was over.

As the meeting came to end in the Shinpaku Alliance headquarters, Kenichi and Shigure were currently waiting for their train at the nearest train station. Kenichi had his arms crossed as he wondered just how this sword hunt of Shigure's would turn out. He admits without any doubt that he was quite nervous and even scared over this matter; he never was one for weapons, never was and most likely never will.

The Ryozanpaku disciple looked over at Shigure, who stood patiently, staring in the direction the train would be coming from. As the weapons master did this, she was completely oblivious to or at least uncaring of the stares she was garnering, some from a good handful of passing men due to her attractive figure, even if it was hidden a bit by the coat, while the other stares were mainly a result of her clothing, some people taking note of the glimpses of Shigure's usual wear under the coat.

Kenichi gulped as he looked down, remembering that Shigure, despite her aloofness, could be downright terrifying and wished that he would not be subject to seeing that side on this trip. In his heart, he knew that this wish was a futile one; given the kind of trouble he's encountered on previous trips with his other masters, Kenichi wasn't really expecting this one to be an exception.

"Excuse me!" Kenichi looked up from the ground in time to see Aya, whom he didn't know, running past people, trying not to bump into anyone.

His eyes widened as Aya quickly approached and he took in her appearance. "She's even bigger than Miu and Shigure!" he thought, his eyes accidently wandering below Aya's face. But he then shook his head, ridding himself of the current thoughts he was experiencing and tried to take in the entirety of Aya's appearance; the wielder of the Dragon's Eye was currently dressed in a grey tank top that had a band logo on it, the material clinging snugly to her upper body. Aya also wore fitting dark blue jeans, matched by her black boots. On her back, behind her long brown hair tied into a still long ponytail, was what looked like a bag that Kenichi has usually seen some people carrying swords in. He unconsciously hoped that it wasn't a real sword in there.

Aya finally reached the two and she paused for a moment to catch her breath, having run as fast as she could from the Shinpaku headquarters to the train station. Kenichi had noticed her speed as well and was surprised to see that perhaps the only person his age he could think that could probably match Aya's speed was Miu.

"Sorry for taking so long," Aya said, bowing in apology. "It's good to see you again," she said to Shigure, who nodded in response. Then she turned to Kenichi, who took a step back in surprise, having been broken out of his thoughts once again when Aya smiled kindly at him. "And it's good to see that you're alright too," she said to him with a smile.

Kenichi rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. "Thanks. I'm a fast healer," he said in response. Then the two of them were silent for a moment as they seemed to size each other up, Aya doing so out of curiosity while Kenichi did so since he still didn't know who this girl was. But then he found himself staring and snapped out of it. "Uh, I'm Kenichi. Shirahama Kenichi," he said, bowing.

"Natsume Aya," Aya replied, bowing in return. "It's good to meet you."

Kenichi was about to say the same thing, but then the sound of a screeching train filled the air, cutting him off. "The train is… here," Shigure said from where she was still standing.

And sure enough, several seconds later, the train appeared, pulling to a stop. After its doors opened and passengers were let out, Shigure boarded the train. Kenichi and Aya quickly followed, slightly taken aback by how sudden Shigure did this.

Several seconds later, the doors closed and the train left.

* * *

Hmm, I probably could have made this longer, but there were several things that I want to save for the next few chapters. Sorry once again for another talking chapter, but don't worry; soon enough action will be coming!

Well, not much else to say now other than that within the next few days, I will be signing up for my new classes in my 2nd year of college. And I'm not sure exactly what comes after this other than paying fees and all, so there is a chance that the next chapter may or may not take longer to be posted.

But until then, hope you enjoyed this and be sure to review!


	12. Chapter 12

Yo guys! Well, got my classes for my new semester. Man, it's going to be kinda weird going back to college after just a few short months. Sure hope this beginning of my 2nd year isn't too bad on me; I think I'm still adjusting to the place!

Anyways, here's the next chapter!

Chapter 12

A few hours later, the train came to its destination. Once the doors opened, Kenichi, Shigure, and Aya were quick to get out first. Kenichi was glad to be walking around again. "Finally here," he muttered, stretching his arms. However, his mind was preoccupied by the trip here. During the train ride, Aya had explained to him the Juken Club's situation and Souichiro's state of being. It had taken nearly the entire ride to tell him everything that had been told to Ryozanpaku and the Shinpaku Alliace, but now he was up to date on everything. And it just blew his mind. This was a far greater problem than he had thought possible.

Aya, meanwhile, merely looked around, taking in the homey feeling of the town they were in as they walked from the train station. "Wow, what a great place. The air here feels so good," she commented, her current attitude a contrast with Kenichi's serious one right now.

Shigure leveled a stern gaze at the two. "Don't let your… guard down. We're not here… for fun," she said, her usual monotone voice carrying a note of seriousness that made the two get their minds immediately focused on this sword hunt.

However, Kenichi lost the seriousness mood pretty fast when he noticed Shigure trying to pump her fist in triumph. "If not for that 'not bad, I made a cool speech' hand sign, I really would have been nervous," he thought. Aya barely saw the hand sign as well, making her sport a confused look on her face. she glanced at Kenichi for an explanation, but he just shrugged sheepishly, his little way of saying that this was just how Shigure was like.

Aya accepted that for now. After all, everyone had their little quirks, especially strong people. "By the way, when we left, you said that even this was a trap we'd still come here, right?" Kenichi asked, "You were serious?"

Shigure nodded. "Yes, but that's what I do… regularly," she replied.

"What! You always jump into traps?" Kenichi asked incredulously.

"Yes!" Shigure responded, once more pumping her fist.

"I am not impressed or admiring!" Kenichi nearly yelled. He knew that his masters were not ones for doing things carefully sometimes, but not to this extent.

Then Shigure turned around to face him. Though her expression has not changed at all, there seemed to be something about it that Kenichi and Aya were able to tell that Shigure felt somewhat disappointed at not being admired.

"No, even if you give me a look like that…" Kenichi began.

"It is impressive though," Aya said, getting her a shocked glance from Kenichi and what could pass for a pleased look from Shigure, happy that at least one person found her walking right into traps to be an impressive feat. "What?" Aya asked, confused by Kenichi's look. Walking into a traps all the time and getting out seemingly fine, while a bit of a bad move, was certainly something that one could boast about.

Kenichi looked away from Aya. "Anyways, all that matters now is that you don't put this important disciple – as in me – in the usual reckless situations you go through!"

"But the Elder said: 'feel free to be… reckless!'" Shigure responded, making Kenichi put a considerable amount of effort into keeping an angry expression off his face.

"What the Elder said cannot be taken seriously. Please be more cautious!" Kenichi retorted.

Aya increased her walking pace a bit, putting her almost by Shigure's side at that moment. "But just why exactly are we here, if you don't mind me asking?" she said.

Shigure looked at her. "Someone wants to hand over… the sword that my dad made to me…" she began, pulling out a picture of said weapon. Aya and Kenichi eyed it closely, Aya finding it to be quite the masterpiece, her being a sword user and all. "By looking at this picture, you can tell it's the real thing, but this is just bait to lure me… out," Shigure continued, putting away the picture, "The real motive… is my head," she concluded.

Aya's eyes widened at the last word before narrowing them. She realized that this really will be a dangerous trip. Kenichi however, was less composed than her. "H-Head!" he yelled in comical fright.

Shigure looked away from the two and increased her pace just a bit. "No matter the era, the world of swords is taking each other's heads… mine especially is very popular."

Kenichi looked ready to bolt. "Gaah! That damn Elder! What do you want to do to me!" he cried.

Aya tried to stifle a giggle at Kenichi's antics. When she had heard from Masataka of his brief battle with the Ryozanpaku disciple, she had been rather impressed by his skill level, but Kenichi was certainly proving to be quite the unique person right now. "Please relax, Kenichi-san. Shigure-san is master of weapons; she won't go down easily. And we can back her up too if things do go really bad," she said, trying to somewhat placate the irate Kenichi.

Shigure nodded. "She's right." She paused for a moment as she looked around. "The trading point is nearby. Before the meeting time, we'll stay here for one night preparing for the battle… tomorrow," she said. "And the Elder also said for me to help treat your trauma too."

And with that, the three headed off to the nearest inn. Moments later, they reached it and upon entering, they sighted a kindly old man at the reception desk. Walking right up the man, Shigure spoke. "Couples," she said.

The old man raised an eyebrow, looking over Shigure then Aya and Kenichi, his mind clearly thinking odd things. "Siblings!" Kenichi said sporting an embarrassed blush, not wanting the old man to misunderstand things. Aya too had an embarrassed blush on her face, having not expected Shigure to just say something like that.

The old man chuckled heartily. "Wow, quite the married bunch," he commented.

"Siblings!" Kenichi and surprisingly Aya said.

The old man just smiled, "I wish you happiness!" he said, clearly enjoying the two teens flustering. Shigure didn't even seem remotely phased by all of this as it happened.

Kenichi was quick to get the key from the old man and after being informed of what room they'll be in, he walked off with Aya and Shigure following. "Why did you book only one room?" Kenichi asked Shigure.

Shigure opened up her coat a bit and much to Kenichi's and Aya's surprise, Shigure's small mouse, Tochumaru, came scurrying out of a pocket. Kenichi suppressed a sigh, wondering why he didn't see that coming given that Tochumaru was almost always with Shigure. Aya looked ready to glomp the little creature, but he had quickly made his way to the top of Shigure's head.

Shigure didn't seem to mind at all. "Don't overlook Ryozanpaku's financial… problems," she simply answered.

Kenichi gained a worried expression. "But even if we claim to be siblings, three people sharing one room is still a little…" he trailed off, an embarrassed blush returning to his face. Aya's blush returned as well.

Tochumaru simply looked at Kenichi from his perch on Shigure's head and made a small squeal.

Kenichi was apparently able to understand this. "Eh? You say that we're not only three?"

If he expected an answer from Tochumaru, he wasn't going to get one as the trio finally reached the room. Shigure opened the door and simply walked in while Kenichi and Aya looked on in shock at the state of the room. The walls seemed rather weak and somewhat broken in small corners, pieces of dried paint falling off. The floor looked a bit better, but still appeared in need of some renovation as well.

"Wow, this place is terrible," Kenichi muttered.

"Given the price and defense capabilities… although it's old… please endure," Shigure said.

Aya walked around the whole room, taking it all in. "This place seems just a bit too quiet," she said, her eyes narrowing in suspicion.

Shigure nodded. "Right." Then she noticed Kenichi taking a few steps forward. "Kenichi, What are you doing?" she demanded surprisingly fiercely.

"Eh?" Kenichi responded. He was definitely taken aback by Shigure's tone of voice. Looking at Aya for clarity on this matter, he was even more surprised to see Aya sport a similar expression to Shigure's.

Shigure sighed. "Do not step on the edges of tatamis… spears will… pop out!" she explained.

Kenchih froze. "W-What kind of place is this…?" he thought aloud.

Shigure removed her coat. "It has nothing to do with… the place. It's common sense… tch, high school students these days!" she remarked, pumping her fist.

Kenichi sweat dropped. "Your common sense isn't exactly common," he said to her.

"What are you saying? Miu would not… step on it," Shigure retorted as she hung up the coat.

Kenichi then remembered seeing Miu do something similar back when he first met her. "Ah." That was really the only thing he could say. "So she's in that kind of world too…" he thought in dismay.

"Excuse me." All three looked towards the door as it began to slide open. Once it was moved roughly halfway, they can all clearly see an old waitress sitting outside respectfully outside the room.

Shigure, on what could be pure instinct, pulled out several shuriken in an instant and hurled them at towards the door, intent on scaring the waitress. However, Aya, in a true feat of speed, immediately opened up the bag with his sword in it and withdrew the blade from its sheath. An eyeblink later and the wielder of the Dragon's Eye moved forward and deflected every single one of the shuriken, knocking them into the walls.

Though she didn't show it, Shigure was quite impressed as Aya immediately moved back to her original spot, putting the sword away as quickly as possible. While not at master class level, the speed at which Aya drew her sword was certainly above disciple level, a feat that Shigure found most interesting given Aya's age. She looked forward to seeing just what else she can do.

Kenichi, for his part, was a bit slack-jawed at this whole scene. "She's even better than Kaname-san!" he thought, thinking of the former Third Fist of Ragnarok and how good she was with weapons, but Aya has demonstrated some serious skill with that sword.

Aya, for her part, looked a little sheepish, having reacted to the thrown shuriken on instinct. "Sorry," she muttered.

The old waitress, being a completely normal person, lacked the trained eyes to see what just happened and so she just went right on with speaking. "Before dinner, I will bring you to the onsen. Please follow me," she said rather cheerfully.

This snapped Kenichi out of his slight stupor. "Wa… good, thanks!" he replied. When the waitress left after that, Kenichi whirled around to face Shigure. "What if you had hit her! If Aya-san hadn't done that, who knows what could have happened!" he exclaimed.

"If I want to hit, I definitely will hit… I'm just scaring… only," she replied.

"What's the point in scaring a waitress?" Aya asked as she got over her sheepishness and stepped towards the two.

"What, you are quite energetic… aren't you?" Shigure said to Kenichi, almost completely ignoring Aya, confusing the two.

But then Kenichi seemed to catch on to what Shigure was subtly saying and he massaged his chest. "Oh, the chest injury I got from the YOMI guy and Souichiro-san. It still hurts a bit, but it's fine…" he responded.

Shigure held up her right index finger. "It's not that. there's still another injury," she said. Before Kenichi could ask her to elaborate that, Shigure then pointed her raised finger directly at Kenichi and then proceeded to let out a huge amount of Ki.

The suddenness of this scared Kenichi, making him stagger back in shock. He even started to fall backwards, only for the back of his head to smash right into Aya's prodigious chest, eliciting a surprised yelp from the girl. Kenichi, immediately realizing this, quickly regained his balance and moved away from Aya, muttering an apology. Then he faced Shigure. "What was that?" he asked.

"Kihaku," Shigure replied as she lowered her finger.

"Don't scare me like that!" Kenichi yelled immediately in response.

"So… just like Akisame and the others said. That injury is still… open. But in the weapons world, everyone goes through this. It can be… slowly cured," Shigure commented, much to Kenichi's confusion, but Aya seemed to get it.

"Kenichi-san, I think what Shigure-san means is that the attack Souichiro-sama and the YOMI member landed on you didn't just affect you physically, but psychologically too," Aya explained.

"Eh?" was all Kenichi could say. "What do you mean?"

Aya fidgeted a bit, trying to think of how exactly to say this. "Well, you've been training with Shigure-san and the rest of the Ryozanpaku masters for a while now, right?"

Kenichi nodded. "Yeah."

"Then that means that you must have been exposed to their Ki at least once," Aya began.

Kenichi nearly snorted. "More than just once," he muttered, recounting all of the times his masters have gotten overexcited or angry and unleashed their terrifying Ki.

"If you've been around them for so long, then how come Shigure-san's Ki suddenly frightens you?" Aya asked almost rhetorically.

Kenichi's eyes widened as suddenly with that one question, things began to click into place. The little bits of info he overheard of his masters talking, him closing his eyes in fear when he had sparred with Sakaki, and just now too with Shigure's Ki. He may be terrified of his master's Ki from time to time, but not like this. "Oh," he said almost solemnly, now realizing and beginning to understand why Hayato had sent him along with Shigure on this trip.

Shigure, who had been silent and unmoving this whole time, decided to then start walking towards the door. "Come on," she said.

Kenichi looked at her slowly, his mind still wrapping itself around the new information he just got. "Huh?" he asked, having accidently tuned her out.

Shigure looked at him and Aya. "Bath," she said. Tochumaru, who had been remarkably quiet this whole time, jumped up and down excitedly on Shigure's head, the mouse positively loving baths.

"Eh? But to take a bath at a time like this…" Kenichi started.

"Before the battle we must cleanse ourselves… Kenichi, come too…" Shigure said slowly.

This got wide eyed reactions out of both teens. "Er, I don't think that'd be a good idea…" Kenichi replied nervously.

Aya nodded in agreement. "I am already engaged to Souichiro-sama. To bathe with another guy, even in this kind of situation would be weird," she said.

Kenichi's neck nearly snapped at what he just heard, Aya having left that particular detail out of what she told him on the train. "Eh, you're engaged to that guy!" he exclaimed.

Aya nodded enthusiastically. "Yes! It's a law amongst my family that a Natsume woman marry the first man to see her nude! Even though Souichiro-sama has already seen me in such a state, it would still feel weird to bathe with another guy."

Kenichi just gaped at her. "Is it even legal for those two to get married at this age?" he wondered.

"This may be… the last bath," Shigure chipped in, "it would be… bad to not share it together," she finished.

The two sighed and just nodded. "I'll just wait in the changing area or whatever while you two take a bath," Kenichi said, Aya giving him a thankful glance. With that the two headed out.

Several minutes later, after being shown their way to the changing room to stash their clothes and get their towels, Shigure and Aya made their way into the onsen with their towels wrapped tightly around their slender figures, Aya being pleasantly surprised as to how big it was. "Wow," she said as she clutched the front of her towel and walked in. Shigure was simply apathetic to this.

"This is a pretty amazing place, even though it's not advertised. Probably because of accessibility," Aya commented as she slowly sank into the warm water after removing her towel. Shigure did the same.

"Is it safe for me to come in?" The two girls turned to the entrance of the onsen where Kenichi's voice came from.

"Yeah, just like the waitress said, there is a rock over here that is big enough to make a bit of a barrier," Aya replied, the waitress having told them this on the way here when Aya asked about the onsen.

"Alright, I'm coming in," Kenichi said. Sure enough, the door opened and out came Kenichi with a towel wrapped around his lower body. He kept his eyes closed, though every now and then he'd open them to make sure he wasn't going to stumble and fall. Eventually, he made his way to the other side of the huge rock that Aya was leaning up against and sat down after removing his towel. Satisfied to be soaking in such a nice onsen as well as that he had managed to not accidently peep served as cause for a pleased sigh to escape Kenichi's mouth. "Ahhhhh, this is nice," he commented, glad that they had found a way to bathe together without any incidents. There was enough steam in the place to serve as a cover up too.

Aya nodded happily in agreement. Even Tochumaru, who had snuck in with Shigure, was there, floating happily in the water, evident by the please sigh he let out. All of them were silent for several minutes before Shigure decided to break it. "Need me to scrub your back… disciple?" she asked Kenichi.

The question was so sudden that said teen nearly jumped in shock. He sure hadn't been expecting that. "Wha-wha-what?" he nearly yelled.

Aya looked just as surprised, but then that gave way to her trying to suppress a giggle as she looked at the weapons master and saw a small smile on her face, indicating that she was just joking.

But then, Shigure's small smile faded and a seriousness that Aya and Kenichi had never seen before in her appeared. The change was so sudden that they were taken aback by it. Even moreso when Shigure quickly stood, making Kenichi cover his eyes even though the steam did a good job of covering Shigure's body.

"What's wrong?" Aya asked. Then she sensed it; an attack. The brunette swerved her head to her left just in time to avoid a chain that seemed to have just come out of nowhere and miss her head by mere inches, instead slamming with tremendous force into the big rock.

Kenichi, having barely sensed the attack, was shocked. "What's going on!" he cried out.

Shigure didn't answer nor did Aya as the girl stood up, standing alongside the weapons master. Kenichi stood up as well and looked around for the attacker. He was very shocked to see the steam let up a bit due to the air pressure of the failed attack and reveal two tall, well-built men in black standing no more than several feet away.

"No matter how powerful the weapon prodigy, being attacked without a weapon… you will still die!" one of them, a young man with black hair tied back into a ponytail said. He held up his right arm revealing the chain with a ball attached to it, indicating he was the one who just attacked. The chain was also attached to sickle, which he held firmly in his other hand. Kenichi and Aya could tell from his stance that he was skilled weapons user.

Kenichi chose to voice his thoughts on this particular fact. "Gaaahhh! Finished! Are we finished!" he yelled, truly fearing the worst.

Aya didn't say anything, merely taking up a defensive stance, holding one arm out in front of the other in a pose not so different from the usual stance that Masataka would take.

"This is… a bit of a crisis," Shigure commented from next to Aya, not even bothering putting up some sort of defense. And that was when the assailants attacked.

* * *

There we go! Yeah, sorry for yet another talking chapter, but I try to stick to the manga in this case. Don't worry though, up next is some action and later down the line, I will be diverging from the HSDK manga a bit and going from there.

Not much else to say now other than that in about a few weeks, I'll be heading back to college and I may or may not be able to get the next chapter out before then. Just thought I should let you all know in case the next chapter takes longer than usual to be posted.

Until then, please be sure to review and take care!


	13. Chapter 13

Yo guys! As with my last few author notes, not much to say aside from the beginning of my next semester approaching. As I said in the last chapter, I will try to keep updates on some kind of regular basis, but no guarantees.

Here's the next chapter. Hope you enjoy.

Chapter 13

The attackers charged forward, one of them swinging the pole-arm he carried right at the weapons master. Aya took a step forward, aiming to counter it while Kenichi merely stayed back, terrified. However, Shigure was a step ahead of them, casually untying her ponytail with a single hand and then rushing forward with a bit of a leap. She then used the untied ribbon as a sort of make-shift whip, striking the side of the attacker's head before moving a bit to her left to deliver another hit to another attacker, a bald man with a katana, that was rushing in.

The two attackers stumbled back, clearly in pain from the strikes. "Wow!" Aya commented on the sight. "She soaked the ribbon in the water right before she attacked to strengthen it!"

"Incredible," Kenichi muttered.

If the remaining attacker felt the same way as the two teens, he didn't show it. Instead, he launched the ball and chain end of his weapon right at Shigure. But once again, Shigure showed her fighting prowess by leaping over the incoming attack, deflecting it with a quick strike from the ribbon. "Did you really think my weapon more than five meters away from me?" she said to her attacker.

"What!" the pony tailed attacker exclaimed.

Shigure stretched the ribbon as far as it could go with her left hand as she used her right arm to cover herself a bit. The ribbon went off into the nearby tree as she nearly leapt past it. The striking end of the ribbon disappeared very briefly into the branches of the tree, but when it came back not even a second later, both her sword and Aya's sword wrapped in the ribbon. Undoing the ribbon, Shigure tossed Aya's sword to said girl while she grasped her own in her hand firmly.

"When did you hide the swords in the tree?" Kenichi asked. He wasn't expecting an answer and he didn't get one either.

Shigure began to pull her blade out as Aya did the same. "Now… the tuition fee is very… high," Shigure said rather ominously.

Without a second wasted after that, the weapons master leapt off the rock and charged forward. "Ah, wait!" Aya said to her, not wanting to just be on the sidelines in this matter and so she ran after Shigure, following her lead.

Shigure ignored her words and ran towards the two recovered attackers, namely the one that had the pole-arm. She swung her sword as she drew near and in the blink of an eye, the pole-arm was neatly cut into nearly ten pieces. The wielder could only look on in horror as his weapon fell out of his hands and into the onsen, rendered completely useless by Shigure. He didn't stay like this for long though as Shigure proceeded to smack him in the side of the head with the side of her sword, knocking him out.

Shigure then readjusted her charge and was about to go for the bald attacker, but it was a fruitless action; Aya had just reached said man and with all the speed she could muster, the teen drew her sword and swung. Shigure watched as Aya did so. It was strong and quick, rather savage yet with a strange, practiced grace to it. Aya's sword came into contact with the bald attacker's and the latter could only stand there with a stupefied expression on his face as Aya's sword cut through his like a hot knife through butter. "Wh-What!" the attacker cried out. Aya didn't say anything in response, but she swung her sword a few more times, striking the katana over and over again with such force that Kenichi, who had yet to move from where he was at and could only gape at the scene before him, couldn't help but compare the striking force to some of the physically stronger disciples he's fought.

The bald attacker dropped the hilt of his katana, the only piece that had been untouched as the rest of the blade had been sliced into several pieces. If he had a comment to make about this, he didn't get a chance to say it as Aya let out a battle cry and whacked him in the side of the head with the hilt of her sword, knocking him unconscious.

"She's… not bad," Shigure commented. Then she heard the sound of an incoming attack and looked just in time to see the ponytailed attacker launch his ball and chain at her.

"Aren't you kind, using the back of your sword," he growled out as his attack was about to land only for Shigure to almost lazily move her blade into the path of the chain, causing it to wrap tightly around it. However, this seemed to be what the attacker wanted for as soon as Shigure stopped the ball and chain, he all but lunged forward, his sickle raised above his head before bringing it down on Shigure. "Your head is mine!" he cried out as his sickle was about to strike Shigure's head.

But Shigure simply raised her sword until the blade was nearly pointing down her backside while the hilt was in the air, the latter of which blocking the sickle before it could land. The ponytailed attacker looked rather stunned and so Shigure took this opportunity to spin her blade around, trying to cut through the chain, but when she did, she found it to be quite durable, resisting her sword as sparks flew a bit from the clash. A few seconds later, Shigure and her attacker jumped back from each other, though Shigure's sword was still trapped by the chain.

"It's not a bad blade," Shigure commented.

"Yours too. I hear it contains the secret of steel. After I defeat you, I will take it!" the ponytailed attacker replied. And with that remark, they both pulled back on their weapons, Shigure's sword breaking free of the chain while the attacker pulled it back to him.

"He can fight equally with Shigure? So… so strong!" Kenichi yelled. He was on the verge of just breaking down from all of the stuff he was seeing so far. First they were being attacked here in the onsen, then Aya shows off her amazing sword skills, easily dispatching one of the attackers in the process and now here he was playing witness to a battle between Shigure and someone that appeared to be around her level. "Can this day get any more surprising?" he wondered.

"Kenichi." Said teen looked at Shigure, startled by her suddenly calling for him. "Don't look away… victory will be decided in an instant."

Kenichi, out of habit, did as he was told, but he quickly found himself blushing as the steam of the onsen was letting up a bit due to the fighting, exposing more of Shigure's nude figure. "Ah, Shigure-san, please wear something…" he said as he began to cover up his eyes, only leaving a small enough gap in between his fingers to watch the fight.

From his right side, he could sense Aya waiting with her sword still in hand in case Shigure required back up, but kept back out of embarrassment over her current lack of wear thanks to the onsen. Kenichi did the gentlemanly thing of not looking. "Thanks," she muttered, figuring out why he didn't really check on her. Kenichi merely nodded in response, focused on the battle.

That was when the ponytailed attacker raised his sickle in preparation. "This time, it'll be settled!" And then he charged forward. He only got barely two steps in before something flew past his head, causing him to stop in his tracks. "What?" he yelled.

"That was just the scabbard," Shigure commented, raising her sword to reveal the shining blade. Earlier when the chain had wrapped tightly around her sword, the scabbard was still on and when she had jumped back from him, she simply took her sword out of said thing. When the attacker had been about to charge just now, him unconsciously swinging his chain is what caused the scabbard to nearly hit him. "I consider you as… strong."

The attacker didn't say anything, but simply charged forward intending on finishing his attack. At the same time, Shigure did the same after adjusting her grip on her weapon. The two dashed forward, practically colliding with each other. Their weapons struck one another with such power behind the strikes that it sounded like a few grenades going off, the noise making Kenichi nearly jump and making Aya unconsciously tighten her grip on her sword. But an instant later, Shigure broke the clash and dashed past the ponytailed attacker. A thunk could be heard as the hilt of her sword struck the attacker's head.

But rather than be in considerable pain over the hit, the attacker merely smiled. "A prodigy of swords and weapons, huh… I've lost," he said before he grunted in pain and fell forward into the onsen. Shigure merely picked up her sword scabbard and sheathed her weapon, the fight now over.

"Time to go," Shigure simply said after untangling her scabbard from the attacker's chain.

"Eh?" Kenichi and Aya said in unison. "Already?"

Roughly ten minutes later, the trio had put on their clothes, Kenichi having to wear his usual training clothes due to Shigure telling him to do so. This didn't sit well with him and he and Aya were rather confused a little over them suddenly having to leave.

Shigure simply adjusted her outfit as she was about to put on her coat. Tochumaru, meanwhile, was actually tying Shigure's ribbon back on her head. "I did not expect the neighbor town of the meeting point to be occupied by soldiers…" she muttered, pondering why there had been attackers.

"Why have me wear my protective vest though?" Kenichi questioned. "It's over right? Can we go back?" he asked desperately.

"Not a… chance," Shigure responded. She ignored Kenichi's comically crushed expression while Aya merely looked at Kenichi with sympathy in her eyes. "Father's sword has not appeared… yet. We will just have to follow the mountain route like this to the… meeting point."

From beside Kenichi, Aya crossed her arms under her ample chest as she was deep in thought. "And given the level of our attackers just now, this trap could be very dangerous," she said, effectively scaring Kenichi.

Immediately noticing Kenichi's expression, Aya grew concerned for her ally. "What's wrong, Kenichi-san? Scared?" she asked.

"I am scared! Really scared, please let me go home!" he wailed.

Aya merely smiled in an attempt to calm the Ryozanpaku disciple. "Don't worry, Shigure-san and I should be able to handle anything that comes our way as long as we are careful." She paused for a moment. "Besides, if worst comes to worst, I always have something to help out."

"Eh?" was Kenichi's only responses to what Aya said. "What do you-?" he began, but then froze when Aya's eyes changed. At first, her eyes were a shade of brown that was just a bit lighter than her hair, but now they were different. The irises were narrower now, like that of a cat, while the pupils had suddenly changed from their original shape to that of slits. The slit were so thin that Kenichi found himself comparing them to something out of fiction, a supernatural beast like a dragon's, and for the briefest of moments, the slits actually glowed a bit. But that wasn't what had him staying perfectly still; it was the Ki Aya was giving off.

Over the train ride here to this town, Aya had said how Ki was something that all people had, an internal energy, the body's spiritual energy, and how its nature or feel differed from person to person. He didn't know how Aya's Ki really was like, but he pictured it giving off a kind vibe. But this moment now was proving him wrong. It felt just like Souichiro's Ki, dark and dense, malevolent really, only to a far lesser extent than Souichiro's. But unlike Souichiro's Ki, which radiated wildly and just crushing down on everyone without any sort of real target or purpose, Aya's Ki felt aimed directly at him as he gazed into her changed eyes as if it was piercing his very soul.

"W-W-W-what is that?" He stuttered out a few minutes later.

Aya smiled her usual kind smile, but combined with her eyes, it seemed a bit sinister to Kenichi. Meanwhile, Shigure watched almost apathetically, though she was taking note of the powerful Ki Aya was giving off. Tochumaru, atop Shigure's head, shivered in fright.

"It's my red feather ability: Dragon's Eye," Aya answered as she then deactivated said ability.

"D-Dragon's Eye," Kenichi asked.

Aya nodded. "Yes. It allows me to sync with practically everything, letting me see the anything from the past, present, or future. I can even see spirits a bit, but that skill is something I still need to brush up on," she explained, remembering how she met the spirit of Reiki and was shown the past where her ancestor had come from and what her part was in the encounter with Sohaku all those centuries ago. But since then, she had yet to be able to meet with any spirit as old as Reiki's. "But using it for too long really uses up my Ki, so it's a last resort sort of thing now."

"Not… bad," Shigure commented, digesting the information as Tochumaru began to calm down a bit.

"Y-Yeah," Kenichi muttered, trying to get over the cold, piercing gaze that Aya's Dragon's Eye had given him unintentionally.

"See, Kenichi, we'll be… fine," Shigure said as she started walking, beginning their travel to the meeting point. Kenichi and Aya quickly began to follow.

"Wait, we're still going!" he yelled.

"Of course. We'll be… alright. Aya here is a good sword user. She'll be… a big help," Shigure answered.

Aya smiled cheerfully, happy that she will be of use in this little mission. She wished to be of more help in the obvious battle to come rather than just let Shigure have to deal with the enemies alone.

They then proceeded to travel in complete silence, save for Tochumaru to make some noise every now and then from atop Shigure's head. It was about a half hour or so before they did reach their desitination.

From the top of a small cliff, they sat down, all of them leaning over the edge to get a good look at the meeting spot. Almost immediately, they took note of the area being relatively well lit, giving them a good look at the enemies. There was a good handful of men dressed in traditional archer clothing, each of them with a bow in hand, looking quite tense as they were on lookout. They were forming a perimeter in the shape of a rather small circle and in the middle of said circle stood a well-dressed man with a sword in hand that he had touching the ground. To his right was another man, a tall and well-built one at that with shaggy black hair. Said man was dressed in pants, a button up vest of sorts with a shirt underneath and prayer beads around his neck, all the while he was carrying a long spear in hand. And in the exact middle of the whole circle was someone dressed entirely in ancient samurai armor sitting down in a chair. The group couldn't see him holding or wearing any sort of weapon.

Kenichi laughed almost delusionally. "It's a festival, Shigure-san, they are holding a festival down there. They look very happy…" he said to mentioned woman.

"Face the truth. They are all my enemies," Shigure said in reply.

"Ah," Aya said, getting their attention, "It looks like they're talking about something."

The three then proceeded to strain their ears a bit to pick up the chatter, Shigure hoping to perhaps hear about her father's sword. They didn't have to strain themselves too much as the men spoke rather loud.

"To gather this many people for just one little girl… I didn't think there'd be this many people after Kousaka Shigure's head," the one with the spear in hand commented.

A man dressed in traditional hakama and wearing a hat, chuckled. "I guess you'll be the first one to die."

The first man looked at him. "Is that so? What makes you believe that, sir Hakuseiki?" he asked.

The hakama wearing man, now identified as Hakuseiki, spoke again. "If that girl was just an ordinary girl, then Musashi and Kojirou would be newbies. If you underestimate her, you'll regret it… Housouin-san," he said, leveling a stern gaze at the first man, now known as Housouin.

Housouin merely let out a 'hmph' in response and proceeded to be about to say something more, but didn't get the chance as someone new showed up.

"Ryozanpaku… the prodigy of weapons and swords… Kousaka Shigure, huh," the newcomer said to no one in particular. "My katana's been whispering to me the whole time… he says that that woman's katana… yes, the secret of steel is here…" He muttered as he approached both Hakuseiki and Housouin, both of whom quickly turned to see who this person was.

Upon doing so, Housouin nearly froze in his tracks. "H-He's huge! Who are you!" he shouted, taken aback by the newcomer's appearance. The man before him was tall, very tall, easily standing a head or two above every other man there. The newcomer was also rather lean, lanky even, in build, which was covered by the black form-fitting outfit he wore. His skin was very pale and his black hair was wild and stood out in nearly all directions with only his bangs drooping a bit over his face.

Hakuseiki seemed to recognize him. "Don't tell me… you're Yami's Sai Kagerou of the Tsubanari, member of Yami's weapons division!" he exclaimed.

Back on the cliff, Kenichi froze. "Y-Y-Yami's here!" he whispered nervously.

Aya merely narrowed her eyes, taking in the Ki that said Yami member was unconsciously giving off. It was definitely impressive to her. Aside from the masters of Ryozanpaku, the only people that Aya could think of that she believes could win against this Sai person was her sister Maya, Mitsuomi, and Bunshichi. The rest of the Juken Club may be able to take this man, but she wanted to wait and see what happens next.

Shigure was simply quiet, at least more than usual, and continued to watch and listen to what was going on.

"Exactly," they heard Sai say rather politely, "but I'm not here to disturb any of you, just-," he said then stopped as he could have sworn he heard something. "Huh? I could swear I hear the voice of Tsubanari…" he started.

Hakuseiki suddenly paled. "What's wrong, sir Hakuseiki," Housouin asked upon taking note of his reaction.

"Don't you know? The meaning of the name 'Sai Kagerou of the Tsubanari.' When you hear the sound of the Tsubanari, someone has already been sliced to death. This is why he wears the name of Otokoeiaigiri!" he said quickly to Housouin.

Housouin looked confused. Had he not been thinking about what Hakuseiki just said, he would have noticed his spear beginning to fall apart into perfectly sliced pieces. "What? Supersonic…" he began to say, translating the name Otokoeiaigiri. He didn't finish, however, for suddenly his right shoulder seemed to explode. He let out a cry of pain so loud that birds off in the distance took off, startled. Men around the area looked on in shock as Housouin fell forward, revealing to them a deep slash wound on his right shoulder, blood flying out of said wound as he fell.

Every single man there jumped back from Sai, not wanting to suffer a similar fate. The tall man in question merely smiled apologetically. "Ah, I apologize… because you pointed a spear at me… I didn't do it on purpose. So you should be able to survive this if you treat that wound immediately," Sai said to the fallen Housouin, who merely clutched his shoulder in pain.

Sai then glanced away from the down man and to the other men around him. "Everyone else, please step at least three meters away from me," he said. The man that were less than three meters away from him immediately followed his command and moved back. "Ah, that reminds me, I have a guide. You should take a look," he said as he reach into the inside of his clothes and pulled out a small stack of papers. He then proceeded to hand one to Hakuseiki and the other men there. "Take one, don't be shy," he said.

From where they watched, Kenichi couldn't help but gape in shock at what had happened. "Just what is going on with that guy?" he croak out. "One second he nearly killed someone and now he's giving them something."

Aya, interested in what the paper said, looked as closely as she could at someone holding one of Sai's guide. "Don't come near me. Don't use any offensive words. Make sure to read this guide through. Words like 'huge' and 'disgusting' are strictly forbidden. Don't stand behind me," Aya said, reading aloud what the paper said.

Kenichi gaped at her while Shigure merely raised an eyebrow at what Aya said. "Is this guy for real?" Kenichi muttered.

Once more, a sound could be heard, drawing their attention back to the men just in time to see two men unlucky enough to be standing behind Sai a bit falling back, a deep cut on their shoulders. "Ah, don't approach me from behind," Sai said.

Then the tall man walked away from the group and sat down on a nearby bench. "How embarrassing. I didn't mean to disturb you. You can have the first strike," Sai said to the group of men, trying to placate them, but all he succeeded in was unnerving them with his casual manner despite the accidental injuries he just caused. "I'll be watching here. Let me witness a great fight."

Back with Kenichi, Aya, and Shigure, they merely watched as the men resumed their positions, though some were considerably shaken up because of Sai. Kenichi and Aya studied the member of Yami's weapons division, though Kenichi was doing so out of wariness, unlike Aya who studied him out of interest to see just how big a threat he is and what could be done to fight him.

But then Shigure suddenly sighed, flipping over onto her back to observe the sky. "What's wrong?" Kenichi asked nervously.

"Because… it's that guy…" Shigure drawled out.

"Eh! Does that mean that tall guy is very strong?" Kenichi exclaimed.

"Yes…. maybe I cannot win…" Shigure replied without looking away from the sky.

Aya looked at the weapons master in shock. "Eh? You really mean that?" she asked. Beside her, Kenichi looked as if his heart was going to give up on him from the shock he was now feeling. He sincerely hoped it was just a joke.

"Yes. At least in our last encounter, I couldn't see his blade…" Shigure said.

She then looked over to Aya and Kenichi and saw on their faces an expression that asked her to explain this great shock to them. Shigure sighed. "When I was little… I was trying to catch a bird flying around my home. At the time… he was getting a new sword… from my father and wanted to test it out. He killed… the bird that I was trying to catch. He did it… right before my eyes… I couldn't even see him draw the sword. I tried to attack him… but he shrugged me off and left… when father told him to leave, but not before I saw his eyes… that was the first time in my life I saw the eyes of… a mass murderer."

Kenichi and Aya looked at Shigure with concerned eyes. It wasn't every day a kid meets a guy like Sai, especially in a manner like that.

Shigure then looked at them and crushed the sad, concerned mood of that moment with her next words. "To put it simply, that guy is my… zebra," she said, mixing up the Japanese word 'zebra' with 'trauma.'

Kenichi and Aya nearly face-faulted at that. "You mean trauma," Kenichi said to her.

"You could put it that way," Shigure responded. She then sighed. "We're only here to cure you of your fear… but it seems like it has become pretty dangerous."

Her words, coupled with what Aya told him earlier, seemed to reverberate within Kenichi. "I see," he said quietly, "so this is how it is. If I have fear inside my heart, I'll get killed by that guy Tirawit Kokin and Souichiro-san the next time I face them. This is what everyone's afraid of, right?" he asked. He began to shake a bit as the memory of his near-death experience at the hands of the two YOMI members came back to him. Aya placed a firm, but gentle hand on his shoulder. Kenichi turned his head to look at her.

"Don't panic. Just face your fear. With what you must have learned from your encounter with them, you'll definitely be able to overcome it this time around," she said, her voice full of warmth.

"Aya-san," Kenichi said with a smile.

Shigure nodded at what Aya told Kenichi. "That's right… just like that time I taught you to swim in the river."

At that, the teens perked up. "The river?" Aya asked, confused.

But Kenichi certainly remembered that particular event well. He quickly hid behind a nearby rock. "I… I still don't think I need to accompany you. I think I'll just stay here and watch," he said, shaking like a leaf.

Shigure snorted in exasperation and then suddenly turned around and with a practiced and mastered grace, reached into her coat and pulled out a shuriken, launching the projectile at a bullet-like speed towards the group.

"What, we're making the first move!" Kenichi exclaimed, completely caught off guard by the suddenness of this.

Aya was just as surprised as Kenichi, but she reacted differently, taking hold of her sword and ready to draw it from its sheathe that second that she had to attack herself.

Meanwhile, the shuriken sailed through the air from their spot upon the cliff and towards the men down below. However, it was not aimed at any of them, but rather a large bell that was nearby. It struck with the force of a sledge hammer, knocking the bell around in its spot and letting out a loud gong that immediately set every man there on edge. The archers prepared to fire, merely awaiting a target to appear while the swordsmen drew their blades and the others merely took up their usual attacking stances.

Sai, however, did nothing of that sort. Instead, he merely traced the trajectory of the shuriken back to its throwing spot with his keen eyes. "There on the top of the cliff," he said as pointed in said direction. That got every man's attention and the archers immediately turned and opened fire on the group, spotting Shigure standing on the ledge of said place.

"There she is! Let's kill her and become famous!" one of them roared as the other men made a mad dash for the cliff while the archers kept firing.

Up on top of the cliff, Kenichi was freaking out. He ran forward and grabbed Shigure, pulling her back from the cliff's edge and taking hold of her coat. "What are you doing!" he yelled at her.

Shigure didn't look at him at all as she answered back. "Oh… I missed," she said casually.

"You liar!" Kenichi shot back, knowing full well that she did that intentionally. He would have continued to yell if an arrow hadn't shot right in-between their faces, getting a yelp out of Kenichi as he moved back.

Another arrow headed for Aya, but she deflected it away from her with a smack of her sheathed sword.

"So what will you do? There is no way back… you wanna wait for them to kill you?" Shigure said, completely nonchalant about the whole thing.

Kenichi merely shivered. "She's the most wicked of them all," he muttered. But then, he seemed to gather his wits about him several seconds later. "L-Let's do it!" he cried out, attempting to try and start getting over his fear.

Shigure turned around. "Oh. This is more like my disciple," she commented.

Aya smiled, happy to see Kenichi making an effort now. "Kenichi-san… good job," she said.

Kenichi rubbed his head a little sheepishly. "W-Well, I gotta try at least a little…" Shigure chose that moment to then stick a fold clothe in front of him. It looked like something was within it. "What's this?" he asked.

"The old man gave it to me… to give it to you when you are determined," she said.

"The Elder gave me something?" Kenichi thought, wondering what it could be. Taking the bundle of clothe from Shigure's hands, he sat down on the ground and proceeded to open it. Shigure and Aya crouched down to get a good look at it as Kenichi did so.

When Kenichi undid the whole thing, right there in the center of the clothe, were armguards. "Wow…" Kenichi and Aya muttered as they looked at it. They may be armguards, but they were considerably different from the ones either of them have ever seen. The armguards were sleek and seemed to be metallic in nature, if the gleam coming from them were anything to go by. They were based off old samurai armguards, the scalish look seeming old-fashioned now that the teens were getting a good look at them.

"Put them on," Shigure said, snapping them out of their reverie.

Kenichi wordlessly did so, doing it as fast as he can as he heard the men approaching quickly. "Wow, it suits me so well!" he commented as he fastened them onto his arms. At first, he was unsure if they would be the right size for him, but when he put them on just now, he was surprised to actually feel how lean and fit they were, almost sticking to him like a second skin, but without any sort of pinch.

Then he made a fist and nearly jumped when the another segment of the armguard suddenly slid from underneath the others and took its place over his fist. "Whoa!"

"To make the fist more flexible, the first segment can be hidden inside," Shigure commented.

Aya bent down to get a good look at the armguards. "Wow. It really isn't any good as a weapon, but it can definitely help out Kenichi-san against weapons itself," she said to no one in particular.

Shigure nodded. "Yes. And I heard that this used to belong to the Elder's son… I have changed the size to fit you. It's a dangerous weapon now." Then she looked at Kenichi with an analytical eye. "Now with them, you shouldn't be scared anymore. Are you ready… Kenichi?" she asked.

Kenichi undid his clench fist and watched as the first segment slid back under the others. He clenched his fist and then undid it again. "I'll admit that I'm still a little scared," he began, "but after what Aya-san here has told me about Souichiro-san and what else could happen," he continued, Aya perking up at the sound of her name, "I know I can't be like this forever."

He looked at Shigure. "And if I want to help put a stop to YOMI, then I can't just be running away anymore!" he nearly yelled, a fire of determination now blazing in his eyes.

Aya smiled at him. "Kenichi-san," she said, happy that she had been able to give the Ryozanpaku disciple a bit of help.

Shigure herself couldn't help but let out a very small smile. "Well, then," she began as she pulled out from under her coat a ball and chain, "just be sure to stay near me… if you want to survive."

She turned to face the oncoming men. Aya drew her sword as well and prepared for battle. Kenichi himself also stepped away from where he had unbundled the armguards and somewhere by Aya and behind Shigure.

He smashed his right fist into his open left palm in determination. "Right!" he said.

And so they steeled themselves for the fight that was about to begin.

* * *

Phew, this chapter had actually proven a bit difficult to do! Yeah, let me know if I did well with Kenichi finding his determination at the end there. Now he hasn't fully gotten over his fear yet mind you, just beginning to as I still plan to have him go through things the same way he did in the manga right now, but I figured Aya's words should help him kickstart this process a bit sooner, thus the ending.

Now on another note. Classes start for me on August 27th as I believe I mentioned before in the previous chapter and I plan to take a few days to plan out the next chapter or two for this fic so I may not be able to get it out before classes start. And I have no idea when exactly the next chapter will be up if I do end up not posting it before the 27th. But I'll see what I can do.

Until then, drop a review and take care!


	14. Chapter 14

Hey there guys, sorry for the relatively long wait on this chapter. Started my new semester not too long ago and I focused on adjusting to my new classes and all that stuff first before sitting down and working on this whenever I had the chance. Oh boy, from the sound of things so far, two or three of my classes sound like they're gonna be rather rough on me. Hopefully, the more difficult assignments of each class won't end up being tossed my way at around the same time. I guess I'll find that out as I go along with it.

Here is the next chapter. Hope you enjoy.

Chapter 14

Kenichi clenched his fists tightly, remembering for a moment of when he fought Kano and the promise he made to him. "That's right. I promised that guy. So I can't die here," he thought to himself with a small smile.

He was quickly snapped out of this memory when Shigure rushed forward along with Aya. Kenichi, not wanting to be left behind, quickly did so as well. All three of them lightly jumped off the cliff and upon making contact with the sloping ground, they began to slide down it.

At the same time, several of the men were making their way up the very same slope while the archers kept firing. Shigure pulled out a chain with a ball attached at one end and a sickle on the other and spun it around to deflect the incoming arrows. The very few that made it past her casual self-made shield bounced off of Aya's sword, the brunette using the flat side of the blade to do so.

"A frontal assault eh?" one well-built, spear-wielding man commented as he and another one of similar height and build, but with a sword charged at the trio.

However, if they thought this frontal assault to be a foolish move on Shigure's part, they quickly came to regret it. In an instant, Shigure let down her 'shield' and launched her ball at the spear user, striking the man hard in the chest. The man let out a strangled cry as it nearly cracked his sternum and knocked him back.

The sword user remained undeterred by his comrade's sudden fall and readied his sword for a strike, but Shigure moved faster, tossing a few shuriken at him. The sword user quickly found himself having to hold back his strike and instead deflect the thrown weapons. After doings so, he once again ran forward and prepared to strike, but at the split second he started to swing his sword, Shigure used the sickle end of her weapon to stab the slope and suddenly hoist herself up just enough to avoid the sword attack.

"Shit!" the sword user swore as he missed. He tried to pull back, but Shigure then reached into her coat with her free hand and pulled out a tonfa, which she then smashed right into the side of the sword user's face. The sword user let out a pained yell, only for it to change to one of panic as he stumbled back off the edge of the slope.

Two other men, another sword user and pole user, were nearby when this happened and the fall of the first sword user caused them to leap at Shigure and attack from both her sides. But when the sword user swung, Shigure merely used the bottom of her sickle to slam into the bottom of the sword just enough to deflect it away from her and right into the pole user to her left, stabbing him in the shoulder a bit. At the same time, Shigure increased her speed, moving forward to avoid the pole and causing it to slam right into the side of the aforementioned sword user. Shigure didn't spare the two a second glance as she, Kenichi, and Aya then charged past them.

Kenichi and Aya looked at Shigure with awe. "She's really strong!" they both thought. They also took note of the fact that so far, she has yet to kill anyone, intentionally or unintentionally. They were both certain though that the men taken down so far were going to be feeling those hits for quite a while.

If Shigure had any clue as to what the two teens were thinking, she didn't show it, merely letting out snort as she took aim at monk-like man near a large tree and tossed her chain at him. The man hardly had time to react, only being able to get out a short cry of surprise as the chain wrapped around him and the tree, with the sickle ending up stabbing the back of the tree while the ball on the other end of the chain smacked the man right in the face, making him lose conscious.

Shigure touched down on the ground just several feet away from the now knocked out man and immediately started to unsheathe her sword. Kenichi and Aya landed just a few feet behind her, clearly trying to keep up with Shigure's pace.

At the same time, the rest of the men that hadn't taken off after them at first now surrounded the trio, each of them drawing their weapons and preparing to strike the second they found an opening.

However, Shigure ignored them in favor of Sai, pointing her sword at him. Sai didn't even react to this. "You don't look like someone who has children," he commented, between her and Kenichi and Aya.

"You don't say," Shigure commented.

"I'm her disciple!" Kenichi said.

Aya merely kept her blade at the ready when the attackers made their move. The men took notice of her stance and tensed, but when Kenichi just talked right now, they flinched slightly in surprise. "What!" one of the men exclaimed.

"The prodigy has a disciple?" another yelled in shock. Then he chuckled. "Well, then I wonder how strong he'll be."

"Now I just have to fight him," another said.

Kenichi froze so suddenly that it would have been comical under different circumstances. "Why did I just say that!" he thought with comical tears running down his face.

But Shigure ignored all of that. "Hey, uni-head, do you remember me?" she asked Sai.

Sai's eyebrow twitched in annoyance and it showed also in his facial expression. "Damn, haven't you read my guide? I don't answer any questions if you're talking to me in that tone!"

"Uh, Shigure-san, shouldn't we be trying to figure out a way out of here?" Aya brought up, noting some of the attackers getting a little closer now.

Shigure spared the men a very brief glance. "Indeed. They have around four master classes as well," she said, sizing them up. She stayed silent for a few seconds. "Kenichi, Aya, 'if a sword has been properly polished, you can… reflect your enemy's image into your heart,'" she said.

Sai smiled, evidently understanding the meaning behind the phrase. The other men, however, didn't appear to share his line of thought. "A direct teaching? How pathetic. This abstract way of teaching doesn't work in the middle of a battle!" a sword user said from where he was at.

But Kenichi and Aya understood exactly what Shigure was getting at. "Is she… asking for our help?" they both thought. The two of them then proceeded to stand right behind Shigure, ending up back to back with her, in order to cover the blind spot she had. Aya, being a swordswoman herself, knew that this is what the weapons master wanted for through the reflection on her sword, she can see nearly everything except for the small area directly behind her. And that was the spot she wanted the two teens to cover.

A few attackers took a small step forward, as if testing to see how close they can get without Shigure attacking just yet.

Kenichi looked forward. "So since I'm here, then my opponent is…" he thought, but then trailed off upon seeing the armor wearing man in front of him with a long spear. "Him!" Kenichi slowly, but surely began to feel fear again, very worried on how he'll be able to stand up against that guy. He knew that he had resolved himself to try hard to get over his fear, but he felt he chose the wrong person to start off with.

"Kenichi-san," Aya said, getting his attention.

"Y-Yeah?" he said.

She got a small smile on her face. "Do you know what fear is to a martial artist?" she asked.

"Er... not really…" he muttered.

Aya's smile widened a bit. "It's a weapon for martial artists. A detector," she answered. From behind her, Shigure smiled ever so slightly.

"A detector?" Kenichi asked.

Aya nodded. "A true martial artist can use his fear to avoid danger at the very last moment. If you can get used to your fear, then you can make your weakness into a weapon!"

Kenichi stood rigid for a second before calming down. "R-Right!" he said, taking the advice to heart. And that was when three of the men attacked.

The traditional armored one lunged at Kenichi as one ran towards Aya and another to Shigure. Kenichi steeled himself for the inevitable attack, trying to keep his eyes open lest he be struck down.

Sure enough, his opponent, without any movement to give away his next action, he struck. The armor wearing man launched his spear forward in an attempt to skewer Kenichi, something he nearly succeeded in doing thanks to it being so sudden and being incredibly fast. But Kenichi had unconsciously put up his Seikuken in time to react to the attack and managed to side step in time to avoid the attack. However, it had been a very close call; if not for the chainmail he wore under his gi, he would have been grazed by the spear tip.

Kenichi ran forward, using the armguard of his left arm to keep the spear at bay by grinding it up against its side. But just as he moved in for an attack, the attacker let go of his spear and went for his sword which he kept at his left side. Kenichi was forced to abandon his attack in favor of ducking in time to avoid the sword slash the attacker performed upon drawing his sword. Kenichi cried out as he tried to leap back from his opponent, but the armor wearing man took a step forward and swung down his sword, intent of slicing Kenichi into two. Kenichi let out a yelp as he then brought up his arms to block the attack, praying that the armguards would be tough enough to withstand the strike.

What happened next was a bit of a shock to both Kenichi and his attacker. The sword made contact with the armguards, slamming into them with such force that it knocked Kenichi off balance a bit, but also doing the same thing to the attacker as well.

"Wow! Just what are these things made of?" Kenichi pondered aloud as he spared a glance at the armguards and not seeing so much as a scratch on them. Whatever material the armguards were made out of was evidently very strong.

The attacker looked just as impressed, though it was hard to tell with his helmet on. "You have an interesting piece of equipment, but to fight me barehanded is insane," he commented.

Kenichi glared at him. "My fists are weapons!" he roared. As soon as he said that, he immediately recalled what Tirawit had said to him about him being a deadly weapon. "Wrong!" he thought without any hesitation.

As the attacker moved in, Kenichi did the same, taking the attacker off guard as he suddenly pressed the tips of his fingers against the attacker's chest. Kenichi's right arm and leg suddenly pulled back as he pushed his left side forward, pulling off his move Mubyoshi. The original attack struck with deadly force into the attacker's chest. The attacker hardly had a chance to register the pain of the punch before he flew back from the power of the hit, falling to the ground after practically flying back several yards.

"My fists are my masters' gift to me! They are the sign of my own path!" he yelled as his opponent tried to get back up, only to pass out before he could even get back on his knees.

At the same time Kenichi had been fighting his opponent, Aya had also engaged hers as well. She was facing off against a sword user and at first they had been in a bit of a deadlock when their blades clashed and refused to back down. Aya gritted her teeth as she put forth her full strength, but while she was much stronger than the average martial artist, the one she was facing off against seemed to have the edge as he slowly but surely began to push forward.

Aya then decided to switch things up a bit and so when it seemed like the sword user was going to win their deadlock, Aya suddenly pulled back, causing the man to lurch forward awkwardly as he now tried to adjust to the ended clash. Aya promptly took this moment to slash away at him. The man was able to regain in his balance just in time to avoid being potentially cut in two, but Aya had expected as much and had even hoped for it – she had no desire to try and kill someone – and so she ended up giving him a light slash wound across his chest.

The sword user than backed up, avoiding the urge to touch the new wound to check to see how bad it is and simply held his sword in front of him in a kendo stance, now rather wary of Aya. Whatever he had thought of her before, he now saw as her a considerably more dangerous foe given how easily she executed her movements just now.

Movements of which he was just about to experience again. Aya, not wanting to give up on the attack, charged forward, holding her sword in her hands ready to strike. She looked up at the sword user's neck and in that instant, the man felt that that was Aya's target. He couldn't help but feel just a bit of fear at how intensely Aya seemed to be gazing at his neck. However, that didn't stop him from responding and so he took a step forward and with a battle cry swung down in an attempt to cleave Aya straight in two.

But Aya had other plans. As soon as the man started to swing, Aya put on a quick burst of speed and moved to her left. In doing so she ended up passing right by her opponent's right side, which was now exposed as a result of his attack still being in progress, though a quick glance to his face was enough for Aya to confirm that her opponent knew what was coming and seemed appropriately scared.

Sure enough, Aya finished passing him and suddenly spun around, ending up behind him. With one swift move, she transitioned from spinning to swinging, slicing her opponent's back lightly. Though the wound was by no means fatal, it was certainly more than just a simple scratch, made obvious by the show of pain on the sword user's face and his yell of pain. The man stumbled forward from the hit and attempted to shrug it off and turn around to face Aya, but Aya quickly followed up her attack with another, switching from a normal grip to a reverse grip and then slamming the bottom of the sword hilt right into the back of the man's head. The man cried out once more before his eyes rolled into the back of his head and he fell face forward, now unconscious.

She let out a sigh, glad that he was down for now. She then turned to face the other men – only to freeze as she saw Shigure with her sword leaning over her shoulder. All around the weapons master lied the unconscious forms of the other men. Kenichi, just several yards away from Aya, looked rather shocked to see them all down; they had gone down very fast.

"Not bad," Shigure commented to the both of them, "you really helped me… out."

Kenichi ignored her compliment though. "You took out all of them!" he exclaimed, amazed at how fast she had done it.

Aya looked just as impressed. "Wow," she muttered. While she didn't have too much of a problem with her opponent, she knew that she'd be hard pressed to take down the others so quickly.

"No." The single word from Shigure was enough to get Aya's and Kenichi's attention. "There's still the most important one left," she said to the two. She then turned to see Sai still sitting down on the bench. Kenichi and Aya did the same as the weapons master, the two of them tensing up, with Kenichi getting into his usual fighting stance and Aya gripping her sword in anticipation of the undoubtedly difficult battle to come momentarily.

"Finally my turn I see. That's good; I was getting bored," Sai said as he made a fist with his right hand. He began to stand up from the bench.

Shigure pulled out the picture of the sword she was given from her coat. "Are you the one to send me the picture of this katana… to lure me out?" she demanded in her usual monotone voice.

"Indeed. My beloved katana, Setsunamaru. Pretty, isn't it?" he said as he now stood to his full height. Kenichi and Aya couldn't help but take a step back, a bit intimidated by his height now that they were close enough to him to really see the height difference between themselves and the Yami weapons division member. "All this just to lure you out. You should feel honored," he said before pulling out yet another of his guides, "by the way, you should read my guide."

He tossed it towards Shigure, but before the guide could get within a few feet of her, Shigure swung her sword with a speed that Kenichi and Aya could barely see, slicing the paper into dozens of pieces. She then pointed her sword at Sai. "I ask you only once… do you remember me?"

What happened next nearly made Aya and Kenichi attack out of sheer surprise: Sai suddenly closed the distance between himself and Shigure, bending down considerably so that he can get a good look at Shigure's face. "You're… Mi-chan?" he said after a moment of intense staring.

"Who's that?" was Shigure's response.

Sai sighed and backed up a bit. "Ah, give me a break. I am not interested in those creature called women; they all look the same to me." Then he got a very serious expression on his face. "But you treat my guide this way. What happens to someone who does this is written in it," he said, holding up a small piece of paper with the words 'don't tear… die…' written down on it.

The Yami weapons division member then started to let a tremendous amount of Ki, this action being so sudden that when Kenichi and Aya felt it, the former fell on his butt from the suddenness of it while the latter couldn't help but place a hand over her ample chest, specifically over her heart as she felt it speed up in rhythm from fear. "What tremendous Ki. He's completely different from the other guys," Aya thought as slowly removed her hand and placed it back on her sword.

Kenichi was just as shocked too, but not for the same reason as Aya. What really had him freaking out a bit was the fact that Sai had a Seikuken and he was able to see it. "It's huge!" Kenichi thought as he saw the Seikuken extend several yards all around him, making the field a veritable death place given how Sai is. "Even I'm inside his reach!" he thought as he saw that he wasn't even close to the edge of the Seikuken.

Sai took a half step towards Shigure. "Ryozanpaku's Prodigy of Weapons and Swords… to test your strength, I have let those small fries do as they like, but…" He sighed. "I'm disappointed. You call yourself the Prodigy of Swords with only this much skill?"

"You'll regret having said this… from today on…" Shigure responded. "Tochumaru." The mouse perked up from within Shigure's coat when Shigure called his name, but then a split second later, he leapt out and landed near Kenichi as the teen stood up, the mouse now sitting in on his knees. Up until that moment, Kenichi and Aya had completely forgotten about the mouse.

"She dropped Tochumaru! She's getting serious!" Kenichi thought. But then he was snapped out of his thoughts when Tochumaru began to gesture to him and Aya, pointing at them and then at the ground. "Eh? We should sit down as well?" he asked the mouse. When Tochumaru nodded, Kenichi nodded back in confirmation and sat down. A moment later Aya did the same thing, knowing that in this battle, she and Kenichi were out of their league.

Sai leaned forward towards Shigure as the teens sat. "I am Tsubanari no Sai Kagerou, member of Yami's Weapon Division!" he said, formally introducing himself. "Ryozanpaku, Prodigy of Weapons and Swords… you have been hunting down my colleagues and stealing their weapons, right?" When he received no reply, he continued. "Your head is very valuable. Plus that katana, the secret of steel… evne though it's not as good as my Setsunamaru, I will treat it well."

Shigure snorted. "I have always wanted to kick your ass. Stop the talking… come."

Kenichi and Aya immediately perked up when they heard the clicking sound of a sword being drawn. However, Shigure already had her sword out so they immediately assumed it to be Sai. They were having one problem though: they couldn't see Sai draw his sword.

"Know your place," Sai said to Shigure as a torrent of slashes suddenly made themselves known, practically enveloping Shigure before she could move.

"Shigure-san!" Kenichi and Aya both cried out in worry.

They watched helplessly as Shigure's coat was quickly sliced away into pieces. However, as this occurred, Shigure casually grabbed it with her left hand and tore it off, revealing her usual kimono underneath. And she didn't have a single scratch on her. "What's wrong… flatfish face? You couldn't slice me… even once!"

Sai did nothing but stare at her in shock. But the shock he felt quickly wore off and was instead replaced with joyous laughter. "I see, so you haven't shown your true skill yet! You prevented me from reading through your true movements!" he exclaimed happily as he started to do some kind of strange dance. But then he stopped. "I did the same!"

This was the last thing he said before yet another click was heard and over a dozen invisible sword strikes could be heard being deflected by Shigure, who Kenichi and Aya noted was still visible in blocking in said strikes. Sai's strikes, however, were still invisible to their eyes.

"Incredible!" Aya thought, "when the sound arrives, his katana is already back in its scabbard! Not only that, but his right arm is nothing more than blur at best! Just how fast is this man?" she wondered.

From beside her and Tochumaru, Kenichi was having similar thoughts. "Please make it through this okay, Shigure-san!" he thought.

All the while, Shigure continued to block or parry Sai's relentless assault, her stoic expression still remaining unchanged on her face. "Is she… parrying those iai slashes with her bare hands?" both teens thought as they continued to watch, unable to blink as they were simply that absorbed by the fight.

"It's getting faster! Be careful!" Sai suddenly shouted to Shigure over his sword strikes, playing with her.

"What!" Kenichi cried out. Aya looked just as shocked as he sounded. Tochumaru, all the while simply sat diligently as he waited for this battle to end.

Sure enough, the sword slashes increased in both number and frequency. Kenichi and Aya watched in both shock and fear as slowly but surely, Shigure moved faster and faster to parry, putting in more and more effort to do so. Not only that, but with every strike she seemed to parry or block, Shigure ended up getting pushed back, the weapons master grunting under the pressure of the unrelenting assault.

Shigure, sensing that she'll lose if she doesn't stop Sai's attacks soon, waited until yet another sword strike was about to land and ended up jumping back and onto the ledge of a small, traditional Japanese styled building nearby, one that Kenichi and Aya hadn't even noticed until now, their attention having been on the enemies.

However, as soon as Shigure landed on the ledge, she was forced to jump back once more and not a second too soon as the ledge was promptly obliterated, sliced into dozens of pieces. Sai then gave chase to Shigure, still launching attack after attack with Shigure still parrying them even as she moved about.

"Ah, they're going inside!" Kenichi exclaimed as he suddenly got up and took off after them, anxious to see the fight. Aya and Tochumaru followed after him.

They took off as fast as they could and just barely managed to go round the corner of the building in time to see Sai force Shigure up against the wall, striking with devastating force as seen by the destruction of the wall.

Sai let out a battle cry as he prepared to attack once more. "I'll chop into noodles!" he cried out. At that instant, Shigure saw a very small opening and so with her usual speed, whipped out a sai, ironically, and tossed it at the hilt of Sai's sword, one of the weapon's small, but sharp points going right through the opening of the handle, keeping the sword locked in the scabbard. "Ah," was all Sai said as he tried to pull out his blade only for that to fail.

This provided Shigure with the time she needed to take the offensive and she lunged forward and let loose a swift, graceful sword swing to Sai's midsection. Sai moved back at the last possible second. "Whoa, that was a close one!" he said as he pulled the sai loose from his blade, "a pretty swift strike. Nicely done!" he complimented as he stood up, revealing a small gash in his clothes and an equally small cut on his stomach.

"Even though I swore never to cut anyone with my sword… this is for my first friend!" Shigure said, thinking of the bird that she had often played with, the one that Sai had ruthlessly cut down. "Be prepared, flatfish face."

"Your friend? I have killed so many, I can't even remember. But I think you can understand my situation," Sai began, "this is all for the sake of improving my sword skills!"

Shigure got into a low stance, placing her left foot out in front of her while putting most of her own weight on her right one. With her right hand, she held her sword at Sai over her head, preparing to attack. "You are… hopeless."

The two sword users proceeded to fall silent, staring the other down. Kenichi, Aya, and Tochumaru looked on in nervous anticipation. "How long are these two going to stare at each other? They're like statues…" Kenichi thought.

Meanwhile, a piece of debris began to fall from the ceiling of the building they were now in, thanks to the damage Sai had done to it. Just before it can fall on Sai, the tall man took hold of his sword and cut it into several pieces. And that was when Shigure struck.

"Kousaka Ryuu Samidare Shuriken!" she yelled as she suddenly let go of her sword and instead flung a handful of shuriken at Sai. The thrown objects flew towards the man together in a bit of a straight line at first before breaking off from one another and curving in their own directions, aiming for his limbs and midsection.

"Oh. For an instant, both of your hands let go of your katana! And you can even control the flight of your shuriken!" he commented, genuinely impressed by the action. But then he regained his composure. "But, it's a shame," he said as a click resounded throughout the building. Just as fast as the sound occurred, the shuriken all seemed to just stop in their path and split in two. "I have the ability to cut everything approaching me automatically with my iai draw!" he boasted.

However, when Shigure responded to this, she did so from behind him, having used the shuriken as a distraction to move to that spot. Kenichi and Aya merely looked on in awe as this all occurred. "You're overconfident," Shigure said, "the sound and sparks made you lose sight of your opponent. Even though your slashes are supersonic… from this position, I'm the one who's… faster!" she said as she swung her sword at Sai.

"She's done it! She's going to win!" Kenichi exclaimed happily. Aya looked ready to jump up in joy along with Kenichi as he said this.

But the moment was very short lived as suddenly Shigure's attack seemed to bounce back. For the first time in the fight, Shigure's face registered shock as did Kenichi's and Aya's. And Sai didn't see fit to give her time to figure out what just happened, as he started to once more unleash a torrent of slashes and doing so without even facing her. Shigure had to do everything she could to avoid being cut, swinging her sword around to once more parry the attacks, though it was a difficult task to do; she was still airborne from her failed attack and she was off balance too from the bounce back.

"Hmph," was all Shigure could say. Roughly a moment after Sai began his counter attack, she managed to slip out a kunai and place it up against the side of her own sword and she swung it just in time to intercept one of Sai's slashes, quickly pulling the kunai away enough for Sai's sword to slip in between the kunai and her sword before Shigure slammed the two back together, trapping Sai's blade.

The amount of force she struck with was enough to bring the slashes to a stop as her strike stopped Sai's sword. "Oh?" Sai was once again impressed; Shigure had been able to stop his sword.

Kenichi and Aya put up one of their arms to cover their eyes as the blade clash had been strong enough to kick up dust. Once the dust settled, they lowered their arms to see what just happened.

What they saw amazed them: Sai's arm had somehow managed to twist itself enough to move as though he had been fighting Shigure face-forward the whole time.

"Eh? His joint is…" Kenichi began.

"He's double-jointed!" Aya exclaimed, almost immediately recognizing what exactly it was. She had encountered many different martial artists over the course of her life and a few had been double-jointed. Though she hadn't fought them, she saw them fight enough to know how they can move at times. Sai was no different, though his use of his this condition certainly made him more dangerous than he already was.

Sai, having been trying to free his blade from Shigure's grasp, decided to just make things easy for himself and so he hoisted his own blade and by extension Shigure as well and with a 'tsk' swung upwards with enough force to make Shigure let go of his sword and throw her into the air.

"You are the first one that was able to stop my beloved Setsunamaru!" he said, "as a reward, I shall send you to Heaven with my ougi!"

"Shigure-san!" Kenichi cried.

"Oh no, she can't dodge in mid-air!" Aya exclaimed. Though she knew that she would be of now use to Shigure if she decided to jump into this fight, she knew she could help out another way.

"Hiken Usuba Kagerou!" Sai yelled as he let out an uncountable number of stabbing motions at Shigure, the speed with which he did them combined with the angles he performed them with caused his sword to bend a bit, almost in a wave-like motion.

Shigure grunted as she prepared to try and counter it, but couldn't think of any way to do so. That was when Aya spoke. "Stay still!" she yelled.

Shigure, instinctively trusting the girl, did as told and as a result, Sai's rapid thrusts just barely missed her. Though the deadly attacks missed her marks, the same could not be said for her clothes as they started taking damage and falling off of her.

Kenichi looked over to Aya to see just how she knew that was the way to avoid getting hit and nearly froze when he looked and saw Aya with her Dragon's Eye activated. The brunette had activated it just seconds ago and used its power to predict the way Sai's sword would bend and in which direction he was moving the sword in. With her Dragon's Eye, she was able to see that the so called ultimate technique Sai was using seemed to require the enemy to be moving around a bit as he never really seemed to be aiming for the middle, instead going for the sides so that the slightly bending sword would strike the limbs and damage them enough to disable them. The killing part came with the blood loss or if the enemy moved around too much to try and counter, would end up getting stabbed or cut to pieces. Aya may have just saved Shigure's life.

However, had she not been focusing her Dragon's Eye so much on the fight then she might have been able to predict and stop what happened next.

Tochumaru, out of concern for Shigure and anger at Sai, leapt from the ground, his eyes glowing with determination while his left hand held nunchuks that had been made specifically for his tiny stature. "Chuu!" he cried as he leapt right at Sai.

"Toochumaru, don't!" Kenichi yelled upon seeing him do this and even made an attempt to try and grab him before the mouse could any further. But Tochumaru's leap at Sai had been too sudden and so Kenichi was unsuccessful in this.

Aya deactivated her Dragon's Eye and looked on in shock at what Tochumaru was about to do. She didn't need her red feather ability to know how this was going to turn out. "No!"

Once he was roughly a few feet away from Sai, Tochumaru let out a battle cry and threw his nunchuks right at the tall man's back in a spinning motion.

Without even looking away from Shigure, Sai turned his left arm around and flicked the incoming object away, more specifically, right back at Tochumaru. "How annoying," Sai said just as the nunchuk slammed right into Tochumaru's throat with enough force to send the mouse flying back into the wall.

Shigure watched in complete shock as Tochumaru began to fall, Sai's attack having ended as a result of being temporarily distracted by the small creature.

Kenichi rushed forward and dived, catching the mouse in his outstretched right hand. "Tochumaru! Are you okay?" he asked as Aya quickly ran over to him.

The mouse remained still for a few seconds before he shakily raised his right hand and gave the two a thumbs up. Then his hand fell and he stopped moving.

"Tochumaru!" Kenichi and Aya cried in concern.

Sai watched this with a detached expression. "Che, I got distracted…" he muttered. Then he focused on Shigure again, only for his eyes to suddenly widen. In an instant, Shigure attacked, doing so with such ferocity, that Sai leapt back to avoid the slash she unleashed. Upon landing, he eyed Shigure almost warily. "A fierce slash I have never encountered before… not even my auto-slash could react in time" he commented as he observed his scabbard strap and saw a small cut on it, enough to make it break and have the scabbard fall to the ground.

He once more regarded Shigure with a measuring gaze. The swordswoman was unhurt, but a good portion of her pink kimono had been utterly destroyed by Sai's ougi, revealing the chainmail she wore underneath. Portions of her leggings had been destroyed as well, exposing her legs as well, though Sai wasn't distracted by this.

He crossed his arms over one another. "As expected of Ryozanpaku. To be able to perform such sword technique… most impressive." He paused. "If you'd allow, I'd like to retie the scabbard to my back. For someone using the iaigiri, without the proper pose…" he trailed off as Shigure then gazed at him. He couldn't help but blink at the look of sheer rage in her usually expressionless eyes.

Shigure held her blade out in front of her. "For someone like you, I will no longer my katana's back…" she said softly, but with an edge that none could have missed.

Kenichi and Aya gulped; looks like the fight was going to be getting much more serious.

* * *

And done! Yeah, like I said in the top AN, sorry for the wait. Classes and all that jazz you know.

And as for this sword hunting arc, I will be ending it next chapter so that I can get back to the Juken Club and the Shinpaku Alliance once Kenichi, Aya, Shigure, and Tochumaru return home. It's about time I start to really start including the Juken Club in this story. So expect the next chapter to rather long too as I will be trying to get things done and rolling on.

Anyways, thanks for reading the chapter and I hope you enjoyed it! Don't forget to drop a review!


	15. Chapter 15

Hey there guys! Hope you're all doing well.

I finally got an internship! I needed one for a class of sorts at my college and I have to say that I found the first day exciting, nerve-racking and a bit dreadful. But at least I'll get some experience so that once it's over with I can go out and land myself a job. That's something I can look forward to for sure. Though I have to say that some of the calls I had to take for the job so far were a little flustering given how serious they were and I was just a complete noob.

Now as a result of my internship, I'll be working two five hour shifts each week and, as part of the class I'm doing the internship for, I'll be doing a weekly journal. Not sure how this will affect the amount of time I have to do my fics, but I'll see how things go.

Anyways, here is the next chapter! Hope you enjoy.

Chapter 15

The room fell silent as Shigure and Sai stared each other down. Kenichi and Aya watched from the sidelines, their breath slowing as they waited in apprehension to see what will happen next. The two teens knew that eventually one of the sword masters were going to have to make a move.

Sure enough, roughly a minute later, one did. Sai moved in, once again unleashing the technique he just used a few moments ago. "Hiken, Usuba Kagerou!" he yelled as he started unleashing once more an assault of sword strikes, the blade bending just like it did before.

Shigure sighed. "You're such… a moron," she said. She then placed her right leg forward, making Sai look on in confusion at what she was going to do. Not even a second later, even as Sai carried on with his attack, Shigure moved, seemingly jumping around the whole place at such speeds that she looked as little more than a blur to Kenichi and Aya. Even Sai seemed to lose track off her as he tried to follow her movements.

But then he stopped this as he suddenly felt a cut being made on his left shoulder. Feeling it come from behind, Sai spun around in time to see Shigure jumping away.

"This is for Tochumaru," she said as she moved.

Sai merely smiled. "That was weak. If you don't cut through my bones…" he began to say as he rotated his left arm to show that he was still perfectly capable of using it.

But he didn't get a chance to fully finish as Shigure then jumped towards the wall and jumped from there to Sai. She pulled back her sword, ready to strike at her opponent, only to once again suddenly disappear from sight as Sai slashed at her a few times only to miss each time as Shigure somehow managed to get behind him, cutting him across his right arm this time.

"This is for all the people you've killed…" she said.

Sai, not wanting to hear anymore, immediately turned around and jumped high, getting almost right above Shigure. "In speed, I have the upper hand!" he yelled with a smile as he once again unleashed Usuba Kagerou. This time around, Shigure didn't bother trying to stay still to avoid the stabs, instead taking a different course of action. "Finally… this…" she began as she held up her sword, "is for the part I hate about you!" she said in a surprisingly loud voice as she then turned around to face Sai and practically went past him, slicing at him in the process.

The two of them landed on the ground right after that, Sai looking rather shocked. Kenichi and Aya seemed to be in the same state as Sai, just wondering what happened. "Did she… slice him?" they both wondered.

Meanwhile, Sai began to pat himself down, mainly his face and chest, trying to find some kind of wound since that was where Shigure seemed to attack him at. He only got more and more confused when he couldn't find out where she cut him. This confusion quickly gave way to shock when suddenly, a little over a dozen of his spikey locks of his messy hair were cut and fell off, a delayed reaction of sorts due to the speed of Shigure's attack.

"Much better," Shigure commented with a small blush of triumph on her face.

"His… his hair got…" Kenichi began to mutter. From beside him, Aya tried not to laugh out loud.

Sai, for his part, began to shake a bit. "My… my hair," he muttered. Then he threw himself back first onto the ground and start flailing about. "How dare you slice off my hair!" he yelled.

"Is he… some kind of man child?" Kenichi and Aya thought, taken aback by the sudden change in personality, though they were trying not to laugh.

"Is that what you'd think I'd say?" Sai suddenly said, standing up. "Don't be stupid, it's just my hair. In fact, my head feels even lighter because of this!" he said as he started to swing his head from side to side.

"Ah, a shaved uni head," Shigure said as she pointed at Sai's new impromptu hairdo.

Sai started to shake in frustration at the comment. "I don't mind at all… not one bit…" He paused for a moment to try and calm down. "Little girl, for a moment, I saw your body fusing together with the katana!" He started to get very loud. "The highest level of sword mastery consists of making the blade a part of your body! And the final step would be fusing with the your blade! This is what your master, Kousaka Hachiroube, used to say!"

The tall sword user took a few steps towards Shigure, an angry expression on his face. "What you have just shown me was the sword fusing part, little girl!" He pointed his sword straight up in indignation. "But, don't think you're the only one who could do that!" Sai then lowered his sword and began to rub his face up against the side of it, a creepy smile on his face as his pupils seem to dilate. "Me and Setsunamaru love each other so much that making the fusion is a piece of cake!" he said.

Kenichi and Aya looked more than a little freaked out by Sai's current state of mind. "So creepy," Kenichi muttered. But then he got serious and faced Aya. "Is that true though?" he asked.

"Eh?" was Aya's response at first, still having been focused on Shigure and Sai. But then what Kenichi asked seemed to set in. "Ah yes. In fact, amongst sword users like my sister and I, along with some others I know, it's important to become one with your blade. As you saw, it can really increase your fighting power when in a fight."

Kenichi nodded at that, having seen just how Shigure had turned the tide of the battle against Sai just now. "I see. Talk about scary though," he said.

"I thought it was beautiful!" Aya said, her eyes practically sparkling as she recalled how Shigure moved. "I've seen sword users become one with their blades, but not to that kind of extent! Shigure-san really is a master of the sword!" she said.

Kenichi took a step away from Aya, taken aback by the sudden blast of cheeriness she had just let out. "Uh, sure," he said.

But then their attention was drawn back to Shigure and Sai when the latter spoke up. "It's time to settle things. The one who can become one with the blade wins!" he said.

With that, he and Shigure charged at one another. Kenichi and Aya were forced to put up a hand to avoid getting the dust being kicked up by the two masters in their eyes. Then, at the same time, Shigure and Sai began to move around so fast that they were beginning to leave after images. And once the two were within range of one another, they struck with the same attack. "Shinto Kourenzan!" they yelled, the attack name meaning their hearts and blades were one in a single slash.

Their blades clashed with astounding force, sending shockwaves throughout the whole building. Shigure and Sai flew past each other immediately after their swords had made contact. As the two came to a stop several yards away from each other, Kenichi tried not to blush and look away while Aya seemed like she was a bit embarrassed for Shigure; the left side of her chainmail had been slash open, revealing her left breast, though Kenichi was thankful that the attack had also kicked up some dust that covered Shigure up a bit. Shigure also had a small cut on her breast as well, which had undoubtedly been the attack that sliced her chainmail.

Meanwhile, Sai seemed to be okay in terms of clothing damage, having no visible slash marks on his body. However, the tall man leaned forward a bit before turning around, revealing a small line of blood coming down from his forehead. "This is impossible. You can fuse with your blade more successfully than me," he said.

"Because it's father's katana… it's natural… that my fusion with the blade is strongest!" Shigure replied.

This get a reaction out of Sai, who suddenly stiffened and his eyes widened. "Now I remember! You're the kid from that time! The child of the blacksmith!" Then he began to smile. "I see… this is how it is… That's why… my Setsunamaru…" He began to wobble, losing his balance. "Doesn't want to… hurt you," he finished saying as he fell backwards onto the ground and seemingly lost consciousness.

Kenichi and Aya immediately noticed that Shigure had used the back of her sword to attack. "So then he really is alive still. That's good," Kenichi thought in happiness. Aya was pleased as well to see this. After having to deal with F, it was nice to see martial artists that had morals.

Shigure walked up to Sai and made a grab for the sword, only for her to see that even while unconscious, Sai had a grip on the blade. Without any hesitation, she kicked his arm, knocking his hand off of Sestsunmaru. "To make transporting easier… I'll take your scabbard as well," she said. And with this comment, her sword hunt had come to an end.

Meanwhile, as this was going on, Mitsuomi was training in his usual family compound, fighting against bulls as he always does. He was currently wrestling with a bull that was easily almost twice the size of the previous bulls he has fought and killed, this one having been fed special supplements to increase its bulk and strength.

He grunted as he let the bull wail on him, the massive animal charging right at his chest and hitting him dead on, the attack forcing Mitsuomi back a bit. The head of the Takayanagi family let this happen for several more minutes before the bull charged at him only to suddenly be forced to a stop when Mitsuomi reached out and grabbed it right by the horn with his right hand, this resulting in much dirt being kicked up. Mitsuomi didn't even blink at this.

"You put up a better fight than I had expected, but now it is time to end this. I'm sorry," he said as he always does to the bull. Then he placed his free left hand right against the bull's face and with a battle cry unleashed an incredible amount of Ki. The burst of Ki he employed through his fist was so powerful that it blew half of the bull up, splattering blood and flesh all over the area. The men that were in charge of letting the bull out couldn't help but watch in both awe and fear as their employer had just utterly annihilated the animal.

The only person there that was not too fazed by what happened, however, was Emi. She stood nearby and as soon as whatever remained of the bull stopped flying about, she walked forward to Mitsuomi and handed him a towel, which he gratefully accepted. He really had to hand it to her; Emi was not only in college, but was also a part time teacher at the academy as well and still managed to make time to work with him. Mitsuomi was impressed.

After wiping away the sweat he built up, Mitsuomi began to leave the training ground, Emi now following beside him as the men closed in and started to clean up the mess. "How are they doing?" Mitsuomi asked Emi. He was referring to the Juken Club. When he had told them of Souichiro, he called off the spies he had over in that area now that the Juken Club was there. However, he did it on the condition that they keep him up to date on things there. After all, Souichiro was the true warrior Susanno and that wasn't something to be taken lightly.

"They seem to be doing okay. They're working with that Shinpaku Alliance to keep YOMI under watch along with Nagi," Emi said, sometimes serving as the liaison between Mitsuomi and the Juken Club.

The two of them, along with the rest of his men such as Bunshichi, Shinobu, and Shiro, were informed recently of the entire situation surrounding Souichiro, including YOMI and the recently made allies of Ryozanpaku and the Shinpaku Alliance. When Mitsuomi had heard that the Juken Club had managed to meet and ally with Ryozanpaku, he had been shocked and very impressed. He knew of the masters there at the dojo and like many other martial artists, knew of their feats and highly respected them. The Juken Club was in good hands. However, he hadn't heard of the Shinpaku Alliance. When Maya had informed him of the group, he had some people see if they can find out anything about them. It wasn't difficult, given that said group had a website, a fact that had nearly made him and the others sweat drop a bit. It wasn't exactly common for such groups to advertise themselves after all. However, when Maya also told him that the leader of the Shinpaku Alliance, Nijima, knew of him being the head of the Takayangi family, Mitsuomi had felt a little angry at this guy trying to dig into his secrets. Granted he never actually kept this sort of detail a secret, but he certainly made no point of making it known to people outside of the ones he already knew. Now if he ever met this Nijima, he would be sure to have a thorough 'talk' with him about digging into things he really shouldn't.

"I see," he replied to Emi, thinking about the whole thing. He himself wished to go there to back up the Juken Club, knowing that Souichiro is most likely stronger than he was before, possibly strong enough that even with Ryozanpaku backing them, they'd lose. Red feather abilities were not things to be underestimated, a fact that Souichiro painfully proved when he first became Susanno and fought off practically everyone.

But Mitsuomi wasn't the same as before either. During his short clash with Masataka prior to Souichiro storming the building as Susanno, Masataka had struck him in the chest with his elbow, channeling some Ki into that strike as he did so. Later that day at the hospital, Mitsuomi had been informed that the attack had somehow cured him of the fatal heart condition he had thanks to Shin years ago. His doctors had been astounded. They hypothesized at first that perhaps Masataka's Ki had some unique properties that had canceled out the damage Shin's Ki strike had done to his heart. Everyone's Ki was unique to themselves, making it possible for one to tell who was who by the feel of their Ki, even if they were red feathers. However, when the doctors had later examined Masataka, they found his Ki, although unique to himself, to contain no special properties to it. Mitsuomi wasn't one to care over that though. However, as a result of the heart condition being cured, some of the benefits it had afforded him also lessened with less oxygen being pumped throughout his body like before, causing Mitsuomi to lose some power and a bit of muscle. But he discovered later that the strike hadn't cured him entirely; his heart still beat considerably faster than normal, but not at the dangerous level it did before. Upon realizing this, Mitsuomi had thrown himself into training hard whenever he can, recovering the muscle he lost as well as attaining a level of power that exceeded what he had before considerably.

Unfortunately, he had his duties as head of his family to attend to and as a result, his desire to back up the Juken Club was something he couldn't fulfill, at least for a while anyway. However, that didn't mean he couldn't send others to help out. But this also brought up the question of who to send as well. Mitsuomi suppressed the urge to sigh; this was a bit difficult for him to decide right now. For the mean time, the best he could do is just what to see how things will play out.

Roughly several hours later, Aya had returned back to the hotel. Almost immediately after Shigure had beaten Sai, they all went home, stopping by the hotel they stayed at earlier to gather their things and pay for the room to leave the next day since it was too late at night at the time for the trains to still be running. Once they had gotten back, Kenichi and Shigure took Tochumaru back to Ryozanpaku, but not before saying goodbye to Aya, who returned the reply. She hoped that Tochumaru would be okay.

"I'm back," she announced as she walked into the hotel room that she and Maya shared. She had called the Juken Club on the train back and told her when she'd be back. And so Maya sat there watching TV until now.

Maya smiled as she picked up the remote and turned off the TV. "Glad to see you're back. How did things go over there?" she asked, curious.

Aya began to explain it all as she closed the hotel door, took off her shoes and set her concealed sword against the wall. May sat on the bed and listened the whole time without interrupting. However, when Aya finished summing up the whole situation a bit later, Maya couldn't help but scratch her head in frustration.

"Damn," she muttered, "YOMI is one thing, but now that I think of it, this Yami group could get involved too," she said. She knew without a doubt that Souichiro was a valuable asset to YOMI and Yami, though a bit unstable thanks to Sohaku's influence and just like with any other valuable asset, it was up to whoever had it to make sure nothing happened. Granted, it was clear that the weapons division of Yami wasn't involved in this current situation, but the potential for any member of Yami to get involved was there.

"Eh, sis," Aya started.

Maya broke out of her train of thought to look at Aya. "Yeah?"

"How is Souichiro-sama? Have you and the others seen him yet?" Aya asked, wondering just what the Juken Club had been doing for the past day or so.

"Not really," Maya responded. She sighed. "The kid apparently knows we're here in town and so far, he seems to have some kind of sixth sense when it comes to us. We've suppressed our Ki as much as we could and traveled with some of those Shinpaku guys around the school a few times, but so far we've only caught about a glimpse or two of him. He's still the same as before, I'm afraid," she explained.

Aya looked down. "I… see," she replied.

Maya then smiled. She stood up and then patted Aya on the back. "Ah, don't look so down. I know a good way to see him," she said.

This had the effect of immediately getting Aya's attention. "Really? What could it be?" she asked. Maya merely smirked in response.

The next day, Kenichi had returned to school, his body still feeling a bit sore from the other day. After he had gotten back home with Shigure and Tochmaru the other day, Miu had practically tackled him in joy, happy to see that he was still in one piece. While he was greatly touched and more than a little happy that she had hugged him, he had been concerned for Tochumaru at that moment. Fortunately though, when Shigure took the mouse to Kensei, the kempo master had declared that Tochumaru would be perfectly fine. That had been a moment of joy, though it had been short-lived for him; not even ten minutes after that, the Ryozanpaku masters had taken to letting Kenichi rest for a bit before putting him through the ringer to see if he still had his mental scar.

He shuddered as he recalled the Ki they had let out, but he had stood his ground when that had happened, so the masters were satisfied. And now here he was back to school. He has honestly missed this place.

But it seemed like there was something going on. "Wow, the beach camp newsletter!" Makoto shouted as she and Izumi had been hanging out in the classroom as Kenichi walked in and was greeted by the teacher.

Kenichi's ears perked up a bit at that small bit of information and promptly stored it into the back of his mind as right after checking in with his homeroom, he headed on over to the Shinpaku Alliance room with Miu, who just showed up right after he did.

As he walked in, he was immediately greeted by Takeda, Ukita, Kisara and some other Shinpaku members. They all looked very surprised, but happy to see him.

"Ah, you're back, Kenichi-kun," Takeda said with smile, giving Kenichi a two-fingered salute.

"Hey, kiddo," Kisara said.

"Hey everyone," Kenichi responded happily as him and Miu walked in. However, before he could take several steps into the room, Kenichi was greeted by Nijima.

"Your body is already fine? My ambition stepping stone-kun," Nijima commented with a smile.

Kenichi placed a hand over his mouth, suddenly feeling nauseous. "I don't know why, but when I see your face, I feel like throwing up," he muttered, wondering just what the hell happened that made Nijima so disgusting to him in that moment.

Nijima grew a tick mark. "What did you just say to your lifesaver!" he yelled as he grabbed the sides of Kenichi's mouth and started stretching it. Kenichi, not one to back down from Nijima, returned the favor, his strength being greater than Nijima's, so the alien-like boy was being forced back a bit.

"Liar! When Tirawit and Souichiro-san attacked me, it was Koetsuji sensei who saved me!" he yelled back at Nijima as the two continued their comical fight.

Eventually though, the two of them calmed down and they backed off. Kenichi then decided to get back on task. "But that guy… I can't just let Kokin go around any longer!" he yelled, actually eager to get some payback on the YOMI member.

Kisara sighed and adjusted her hat. "What an annoying guy. He didn't provoke us on his own yet. It's like he wants to just enjoy school life."

"Those people wanted to teach their Satsujinken to the school, but before that they said that they were here to study," Miu pointed out, "maybe they're taking this time to learn some common knowledge like everyone else does?" she asked.

Nijima nodded his head in agreement. "Sounds logical enough," he said, then he got a little rowdy again. "Then let's teach them the Shinpaku Alliance's commanding technique!" he said with mad glee, getting loud support from a few of his men.

They all stopped talking when the door suddenly opened. Much to their surprise, Boris walked in. "I do not see the need to learn such things. For I have already learned it in detail from my master," he said.

"Boris…" Kenichi practically growled out, ready to fight in case the Russian disciple tried anything.

Boris looked at him and sized him up. "Hmm, I don't see the eyes of a dead martial artist. Perhaps Kokin misread you?" he said, more to himself than to the others.

Takeda then walked up to Boris, cracking his knuckles. "Good timing. I have a mountain of things to ask you. For example, Kokin's disappearance and stuff…" he began.

However, he blinked in surprise and took a step back when Boris suddenly leaned forward, getting right in Takeda's face. "Chairs," he muttered.

"Huh?" was Takeda's only response.

Boris then walked past him and started to pick up chairs scattered around the room. "Take ten chairs from this classroom to the other. That was the instructor's order," he explained. He stacked ten on top of one another and lifted the load with just one hand, showcasing his strength.

He started to walk away, but then stopped. "Besides," Boris began. He turned and faced Kenichi. "Shirahama Kenichi, the one to destroy you will be me! Once master's orders are in, I'll finish you off!" Then the command sambo disciple faced the Shinpaku Alliance members present. "Shinpaku whatever, if you cause trouble for me, I'll eradicate you all. End of message!" he said to them before he finally decided to leave.

However, his threat was something that Takeda and Ukita absolutely refused to let go. Takeda, still smirking, assumed his usual boxer stance and began to start moving in on Boris, Ukita not far behind him. "You sure can talk! Basically, because we're facing a guy who kills without even blinking, we can't show mercy, even in school!" Takeda explained as he charged. Ukita, for his part, let out a shot battle cry as he stretched out his arms, ready to grapple Boris.

Boris himself decided to respond to the attack and threw the chairs into the air a bit in order to get ready to counter Takeda and Ukita. But at that moment, before things could go any further, Ono Kyoko, their teacher walked into the room.

"Hey Boris, after moving the chairs, sorry to bother you with the photo-copying sheets," she said happily, evidently grateful for all the tasks Boris did for her and the other teachers. However, her eyes had been closed as she walked in and so the tense atmosphere hadn't been sensed by her at all.

Immediately, Boris, Ukita, and Takeda stopped their advance and caught some chairs that Boris had tossed just now. Even Kenichi nabbed a few.

This was done just in time too, for as soon as they caught the chairs, Kyoko opened her eyes. "Oh, everyone's helping out." She sounded pleased. She then began to leave the room, gesturing for the four teens to follow her so that they could put the chairs away.

As they left, Kisara sighed. "I knew they wouldn't dare fight in school…" she said.

Miu nodded in agreement. "But with Kokin and maybe Souichiro-san as exceptions, we still need to be on guard."

Nijima looked considerably more nervous than his fellow Shinpaku members. "Damn it," he thought, "just when will they attack next? I hope that Juken Club comes along like they said they will…" During the time Kenichi had been with Aya and Shigure on the sword hunt, the Shinpaku Alliance leader had heard of the beach camp that their class would be going on, Souichiro most likely included and told this to the Juken Club. They planned to try and sneak along with them so that they can perhaps finally see Souichiro after all this time and get a better feel for the situation.

At the same time, the teens helping Kyoko had just finished up moving the chairs and Kenichi, Takeda, and Ukita had headed back to the Shinpaku Alliance room. Boris, however, had remained behind with Kyoko.

"Beach… camp?" he said, confused. Currently, he was staring at a newsletter about it that Kyoko had just handed him.

"It's Boris' first time right? A beach camp!" Kyoko replied happily.

Boris continued to study the newsletter. "From this location… it looks like a no-man's land between mountain and ocean, or a similar area with no civilization."

"You, that's right. Everyone at this place will learn a lot from nature," Kyoko said, "and for you and Souichiro-san, it'll let the two of you get to know your classmates better!" Aside from Boris, Kyoko had apparently been particularly interested in Souichiro as well, noticing how he and Boris both seemed to have the least social interaction with other students. Both were usually quiet and in Souichiro's case, wasn't exactly at school often, especially as of late, with the teen looking rather upset over something. Kyoko hoped that this beach camp would be the experience the two need to get to fit in more with the rest of the class.

Boris ignored the last sentence she said though. He glanced at her. "In other words, it's an on-the-spot training at the hills and ocean? How many days to complete the mission? How much provisions to bring along?" he questioned, in keeping with his strict, soldier-structured personality.

If Kyoko wasn't her usual air-headed self, she may have noticed how tense the air seemed to feel as Boris was calmly assessing the coming event. "The duration is three days and two nights. No need to bring your bento; the locals will be providing us with food," she answered.

"In other words, this is survivor-styled training designed by the area's inhabitants. Understood," Boris replied.

"Tell everyone to bring their swimsuits!" Kyoko cheerily said to Boris as the teen turned to leave.

"Yes," was Boris' response. However, he was thinking something a bit different at the same time. "What a perfect opportunity. Now I just have to wait for my master's orders!"

* * *

As you can see, starting next chapter, I'll definitely be bringing in the Juken Club more often. I know that I have been saying that for the past few chapters I believe, but I was just trying to build things up a bit before actually going through with it. (bowing) Please forgive me!

Anyways, as stated in the beginning AN, I am now in an internship so I am not too sure how this affect my writing time if it even does affect it at all. I do have projects to complete for the internship, but they're all done while I'm on shift except maybe for one. Just letting you guys know just in case.

Also, looks like my classes are picking up the pace a bit, so that may possibly delay the writing of the next chapter. Uggh, I just hope they don't throw any essays at me at the same time or something; that'd really suck.

But aside from that, thanks so much for reading! It always makes me happy to see that you guys enjoy my fic! Don't forget to review too!


	16. Chapter 16

Man, that internship sure is something. Only been there for about a few weeks now, but damn, some of the calls I have to take sure are something else. Nothing but intriguing to say the least about them. Apparently, I get the more… exciting calls. Sure hope this kind of 'luck' doesn't last me; I wouldn't mind some simple ones.

And in the mean time too, classes haven't been that bad. In fact, they've been pretty cool so far, but I'd say maybe midway through the semester, things will start to pick up in difficulty. I'll see how it goes from there.

But enough of my rambling! Time for the chapter!

P.S. I ALSO HAVE CHALLENGES LISTED ON MY PROFILE PAGE! IF YOU ARE INTERESTED IN TAKING A CHALLENGE, PM ME AND LET ME KNOW WHICH ONE!

Chapter 16

It was a sunny day at the beach camp site. The class had arrived just a bit earlier and everyone had changed into their school swimsuits. People have yet to get into the water though; they were too busy staring at Miu and Rachel to do so.

Miu, despite her braiding her hair and wearing glasses all the time at school, was still obviously very attractive, a fact that most, if not all of the guys at school, noted. Now, however, this was a fact that they firmly believed even a blind person could notice. For right now, Miu was dressed in the school swimsuit, which did her body justice. The material was snugly fit onto her lean, slender body, her well-endowed chest being quite prominent in this case as the swimsuit wasn't exactly meant for girls like her. And she wasn't wearing her glasses either and so she was showing off the entirety of her beautiful face, though her hair was still braided. This didn't stop the guys from trying as hard as possible to hold back nosebleeds while some of the girls in her class looked over their own bodies in envy or flat out depression.

"Just what kind of food do I have to eat and what kind of exercise I have to do to look like that?" some of the girls muttered.

But if they were feeling jealous over Miu, then Rachel was making some of them want to beat her senseless. The female YOMI member was dressed in a two piece white bikini, both parts of which were perhaps one size too small for the equally slender and very curvaceous American girl. Rachel knowingly leaned forward, emphasizing her prodigious chest, which was bigger than even Miu's, making some guys practically stroke and the girls look on in shock and despair.

"Is she even human?" Izumi muttered to no one in particular.

As the class currently hung out on the beach for now, Izumi and Makoto couldn't help but shoot Rachel some envious glances while the surrounding boys and even some girls looked at the YOMI member with a blush on their faces.

"R-Rachel-san, you're showing off too much skin…" Izumi said to her.

Makoto though, had something different to say. "By the way, why are you the only person not wearing our school's swimsuit?" she asked the busty blonde.

Rachel giggled. "That's because the suit I order hasn't arrived yet," she replied rather happily. She was happy because she was glad to have everyone's attention on her. "That's right! All eyes on me!" she thought with triumph.

But then she noticed that some guys weren't looking at her, but somewhere else. The guys were looking at Miu somersaulting backwards out of the water. The display was a truly impressive one of athleticism and flexibility as Miu flipped through the air like a seasoned pro.

"Wow, Furinji-san is like a dolphin!" a girl commented as she and a friend got into the water to swim.

From back on shore, Kenichi, dressed in the male school swimsuit, looked on in joy at the sight. "Ah, I'm so glad to have come here," he thought, quite happy to be on this trip now. Rachel, who was standing not far away from him, looked annoyed though, unhappy with Miu unintentionally taking her spotlight.

Meanwhile, Kyoko, also dressed in a school swimsuit with a sweater over it, stepped forward. The young teacher blew a whistle to get everyone's attention. "It's time for the male student's long-distance swimming! Get ready!"

And with that command, the boys of the class began to fall into place. However, there were two guys that didn't bother moving from where they were at. "Whose side are you on? Furinji's side or Rachel's side?" one of them, a guy of average height and short black hair said to his buddy, who was taller than him by a bit and had blonde spiky hair.

But before the blonde guy could respond, Boris interrupted. "Are you guys deaf or what? Go join the others!" he commanded.

The guys immediately went from being happy to annoyed. "Che, it's the teacher's pet, Boris again," they both muttered, "he's so annoying," the one with blonde hair said.

Then they turned around to apparently tell him to back off, only to suddenly change their mind on that after getting a good look at the Russian teen. Boris, like all the other guys in the class, wore the school swimsuit for the males, that being a speedo of sorts, thereby showing off his body. Boris was clearly a tall teen, something that, combined with his always stern expression, made him a very intimidating guy amongst the class. But now everyone had a look at his broad, extremely well-built body. Boris had a strong body, with large muscular arms and shoulders, a well-toned chest and six-pack and powerful legs, all which is the result of the intense training he went through thanks to his master.

The guys, after taking note of this, got very scared and started to run over to the rest of the guys. "Understood! We're on our way!" they yelled out in fear as they moved along.

As Boris then started to walk back to where the event would start, Kenichi, having seen this happen, couldn't help but be intimidated too. "Wow," he muttered. He then glanced down at his own body. Though he was also quite muscular, having strong wiry arms and legs with a well-muscle torso, he noted that his physique was still rather lean and skinny. "After so many battles, I thought I knew him… but his body is incredible! Mine is the opposite…" he thought as he recalled his battles with Boris and the difficulty he had in overpowering him. Now after getting a look at him in the school swimsuit, he could understand why he had such a hard time doing so; the difference in their physique and physical strength was obvious now.

But then he remembered what Akisame had told him early on in his training, how the special regimen Akisame put him through made his muscles the perfect combination of strength and endurance. The sudden memory made Kenichi feel a bit better. "That's right! I have no reason to doubt the training I went through at Ryozanpaku so far!" he thought, his confidence back. But then it started to wane once more as Ethan walked on by, the YOMI member easily being more muscular than Boris could ever hope to be. "I-I must have faith," Kenichi thought again.

Then Kenichi spared a glance behind him when he heard some girls sounding upset over something. Several feet behind him sat Tanimoto, the blond teen sitting down in dark blue sweat pants and grey hoodie. "Sorry, but I can't face direct sunlight. I'm really sensitive," he said to some girls in his cheery persona. This got some cries of disappointment from them as they had really wanted to see him swim.

"You'd get a lot of attention too if you didn't wear those clothes," Kenichi thought. He sighed. "Well, at least I can be sure that I can fight them on even ground," he muttered to himself. If he can't beat them in build, then if it comes down to it, he can try to beat them in a fight. He stood a way better chance in that than in physique anyway.

Meanwhile, as Kenichi went to go join the other guys of the class to get ready for the swimming event, the superintendent – he came along on the trip to keep an eye on things – saw that Souichiro wasn't there and decided to send Makoto to find out where he was while he made sure that the guys were preparing themselves for the event.

Makoto sighed. She had hoped just to hang out with Izumi and some other classmates, but the superintendent just had to send her to go get Souichiro. She can't exactly say that she wasn't afraid of him. But she did admit that since the teen was a part of her class, it only made sense for him to try and bond with his classmates.

She wandered into the surrounding woods a bit, figuring that Souichiro most likely didn't want to stay on the beach, and started looking around, careful not to get lost. "At least I can still see the beach," she said to herself. The trees were thick and the branches rather long, but thankfully not enough to prevent her from seeing the beach when she spared a glance behind her. As long as it stayed that way, getting lost would be impossible for her. It also helped that her classmates were loud enough for her to find her way back through sound too.

Makoto walked a bit further in complete silence before she felt a familiar, ungodly pressure. Souichiro's Ki, not that she knew what exactly this feeling was. Souichiro was close by. Makoto unconsciously gulped, but then steeled herself and began to walk towards the source, coming from her right, knowing that she was going in the right direction due to the increasing pressure and fear that she was feeling. Roughly a minute later, she finally reached the source.

Now, right before her was Souichiro. The teen was lying on the ground, his arms behind his head as a makeshift headrest as he gazed up at the sky through the long tree branches that slightly obscured his view. His long silver hair seemed to extend in all directions, Souichiro having not bothered to keep his hair from getting dirty when he plopped on the ground earlier to relax. He certainly wouldn't have to worry about animals getting the wrong idea and try to chew his hair; his Ki was too terrifying for any animals in the vicinity to get anywhere near him.

"Ah," was all Makoto could utter. Despite the soul-crushing Ki she was feeling from being this close to him, she couldn't help but blush just a bit.

Souichiro wasn't dressed in his usual clothes, but instead in a pair of dark grey swimming trunks – he had refused to wear the school swimsuit and the faculty members didn't really want to risk themselves trying to get him to change his mind – and nothing else. This had the result of exposing his body to Makoto. Although Souichiro wasn't as big as Boris, he certainly wasn't skinny either. He possessed a lean and extremely well-built physique, with strong and wiry arms and legs connected to a very defined torso, his chest looking well-sculpted and his abs practically rippling with every breath he took. Makoto wasn't sure if she should be scared or slightly attracted to him.

"He's even better built than Shirahama," she thought to herself. She and Izumi have noticed Kenichi being in good shape earlier when the whole class had finished changing into their swimsuits. Izumi had blushed at the sight of Kenichi, but Makoto hadn't, though she did admit to herself at the time that he had a much stronger looking body than most guys in the class. But with Souichiro here, she had to say that the teen was in even better shape than Kenichi.

She then stifled a gasp and nearly took a step back when Souichiro's eyes suddenly shifted their focus from the sky and onto her. "What's up?" he asked in a bored voice.

Makoto suppressed the urge to shiver. Taking in a calming breath, she then spoke. "It's time for the guys to participate in an event. The superintendent wants you to join in too," she said in a steady voice.

Souichiro just stared at her, making the girl flinch a bit and nearly even gulp too. Then without a single word, Souichiro got up, the ground caving in slightly around his feet as he shifted them during the process. Makoto couldn't help but wonder if Souichiro would even be able to swim what with his Ki practically forcing everything around him down.

Souichiro then started to walk. However, he wasn't walking towards the beach, a fact that Makoto immediately picked up on. "Hey!" she shouted without meaning to.

Souichiro paused mid-step and turned slightly to look at her. "What?"

"Aren't you going to swim too?" she asked.

"Don't feel like it," Souichiro responded.

The suddenness of his answer made her take a step back in surprise. "Why not? She asked. Though she didn't really want to stick around too long, she was determined to try and get Souichiro come and join the swimming event.

Souichiro got a bit of an uncomfortable look about him at that moment. "… I don't like being around people," he said. And he meant it, though not because he didn't exactly hate people. With Sohaku is his mind trying to take over, being around others could end up being bad for them if Sohaku tried to exert more influence over him. Though said influence has lessened a bit since his attack on Kenichi – which Souichiro did regret and was actually glad to see that the Ryozanpaku disciple had survived – the true warrior didn't want to risk the safety of others right now.

But Makoto was nothing if not a bit of a determined student when it came to tasks. "Well, you don't have to be around the class too much. Just participate in this event," she said to him.

Souichiro didn't respond. However, he did turn around completely, now facing Makoto. He stared at her almost cautiously.

Makoto sighed. "Is it really that bad to possibly get to know your classmates?" she asked.

Souichiro's eye nearly twitched. It wasn't that he didn't want to get to know them; if anything it was almost the opposite. Having been stuck with his bastard of a 'father' in his head for so many months now, he was almost craving for human contact. But that want was offset by the inherent danger he posed just by being around others. His journey across the world in search of red feathers as well as his following fight with Masataka, which had cost that teen a hand, only solidified this belief.

And now here was someone that was unrelated to the world of fighting – as far as he knew anyway – and was pretty much giving him a chance to join of his own accord. Souichiro was feeling a bit confused on what to do. He stayed silent for almost a whole minute before he finally began to walk towards the beach.

As he passed by Makoto, he spoke. "Let's get this over with," he said in a bit of an annoyed yet slightly amused voice.

Makoto looked genuinely surprised, which then gave way to a small smile. Looks like Souichiro wasn't such a bad guy after all. She followed after Souichiro back to the beach.

As they made their way back, the guys of the class were busy stretching, getting ready to take off in the swimming event. They all tensed up as Souichiro approached a minute or two later. They have gotten a bit used to his Ki as well, but it still didn't make him any less terrifying to them. Even the superintendent, who will be starting this event, looked a little frightened.

But that didn't stop him from doing his job. "Ah, Nagi-san, about time you showed up," he said in such a calm voice, that many people around him were quite surprised by this.

Even Kenichi was shocked. He knew that Kyoko was seemingly immune to Souichiro's Ki, but he certainly wasn't expecting the superintendent to be so resilient against it too. At the same time, he couldn't help but repress a shudder of fear as he recalled the powerful punch that had nearly ended his life not so long ago. Though he knew of Souichiro's circumstances now, it didn't automatically make it easier for him to be around the true warrior.

But Kenichi, thanks to the sword hunt he went on alongside Shigure and Aya, he was feeling more determined than he usually did to get used to this situation with YOMI and Souichiro. "I'll think I'll try and see if I can maybe talk to him at some point," he thought as he took his place alongside the other guys, ready to race. He planned to at least be able to coexist with Souichiro now that he knew he wasn't necessarily like the other YOMI members.

Boris and Ethan, for their parts, merely eyed their powerful comrade for several seconds before slowly nodding, acknowledging him. Souichiro hesitantly returned the gesture. Boris and Ethan were quite possibly the only members of YOMI aside from Ryuto and Kajima to not go out of their way to actively avoid him or ignore him.

Then he eyed Kenichi, careful not to be obvious about it; he had seen the Ryozanpaku disciple shudder. "Nagi, take your place!" the superintendent said and Souichiro complied.

As he and the boys now began to take their places for the race, Makoto walked back to Izumi and some other girls nearby her. "Makoto, are you okay?" Izumi asked, concerned for her friend.

Makoto smiled and nodded. "Yeah, just fine." Then she frowned in confusion. "Why?"

Izumi started to stutter a bit. "A-Ah, I was worried that maybe Souichiro-san would try something," she said rather lamely.

"He didn't do anything," Makoto said in a reassuring voice. She paused for a moment. "Actually, he may not be such a bad guy." That last statement had caught Izumi's attention for sure, but that was when the superintendent started the event.

Immediately, Souichiro let out a small burst of Ki, this having the effect of making everyone freeze for a second in complete and utter fear. This only lasted for a very brief second though as Souichiro then dove right into the water and started swimming.

"Ah! He's got a head start!" one guy shouted and then all of the guys leapt into the water and took off too. However, they quickly came to realize that Souichiro was swimming at speeds that none of them could match. Not even Kenichi, Boris, and Ethan, easily the most fit of all the guys in their class, could hold a candle to Souichiro. They tried futilely to catch up, but Souichiro was moving at master class speeds.

"Wah, so fast! I can't catch up!" Kenichi yelled to no one in particular as he swam as fast as he possibly could. But Souichiro was just getting farther and farther ahead with every passing second. He tried to force himself through a second wind, but before he could even consider that, Boris and Ethan suddenly began to exert themselves more and they managed to shoot past Kenichi. "W-What!" Kenichi yelled.

"The instructor ordered us to go all-out!" Boris yelled as if the response would suffice for Kenichi. He placed both arms in front of him and pushed with all of his might, pushing himself forward in the water with incredible speed. From beside him, Ethan was doing the same.

From on shore, several girls squealed at the sight of Boris and Ethan swimming. "Kyaa! Boris-kun, Ethan-kun, you're amazing!" they shouted, egging on the two teens.

From beside them, Izumi couldn't help but feel that she should cheer as well, but for Kenichi, not Boris and Ethan like the other girls. "Shirahama-kun, do your best!" she yelled, trying to suppress the blush as she did so. From beside her, Makoto couldn't help but smile a bit at her friend trying to get a bit more active in getting Kenichi's attention.

But it was Miu that did the trick. "Kenichi! Show them your full power!" she cried out as she waved to him, though he couldn't see her.

Kenichi, upon hearing Miu, smirked. "Miu's cheering me on!" he thought happily. He then decided to switch things up a bit, using noshi, an ancient Japanese swimming style in which he lied in the water on his right side, almost as though he was sleeping on a bed. He then began to kick rapidly and with his arms folded together to help keep him afloat and going straight, his kicking sped him up immensely.

"Whoa, Shirahama, just got a lot faster!" the superintendent remarked as he watched the event with a pair of binoculars.

Beside him, Rachel pouted. "Ah, they're getting so much attention!" she thought, blushing in jealously as the girls nearby cheered for the guys.

Within seconds, Kenichi managed to overtake Ethan, the large teen now being relatively behind Kenichi while the Ryozanpaku disciple quickly began to catch up with Boris. "Just what are you planning!" he yelled at Boris over the rush of the water around them as they swam at breakneck speeds. "Do you plan on blending in more? On learning more of the common knowledge of a high school student?" he questioned.

"Hmph, exactly," Boris responded loudly in return, "but because it'll be over soon, I'll feel a little uncomfortable."

"What! What do you mean!" Kenichi demanded.

He didn't get a chance to hear an answer from Boris, for that was when Ethan somehow managed to increase his speed more and overshoot Kenichi now. Quickly getting back on track, Kenichi let out a battle cry of sorts and tried to speed up some more.

Within seconds, it got to the point where he, Boris, and Ethan were practically side by side. From on shore, the cheers of the girls could be heard, egging them on. The guys that were far behind them in the water still tried to swim further though some just gave up and settled for staying afloat in the water to watch who would win.

But as this occurred, Kenichi risked a glance forward to see how far he'd have to go before having to race back to shore when he noticed Souichiro much further ahead. In fact, Souchiro had overshot the checkpoint by a large margin; he was swimming out of the imposed boundary so to speak. "HEY!" he cried out as loudly as he could, hoping to get Souchiro's attention. Though the water did get into his eyes a bit as he continued to swim, he did see Souichiro look over his shoulder. "YOU PAST THE CHECKPOINT!" he roared.

If he was closer to Souichiro, he would have seen the true warrior's eyes widen slightly as this info set in after a second or two and Souichiro ended up trying to stop himself, but it was much easier said than done; he had been swimming so fast that turning back around was very difficult.

From back on shore, Makoto saw this, Souichiro's silver hair making him stand out despite how far out at sea he was. She was about to cheer for him, as a classmate of course, but then hesitated. But then she made up her mind for good several seconds later. "Come on, Souichiro-san! Go faster!" she yelled, actually surprised at herself a bit for cheering for him.

Some of her classmates looked at her in shock for doing this only to look back at Souchiro as he started to finally manage to start turning back around. But at this point, Kenichi, Boris, and Ethan had already gotten to the checkpoint and were well on their way back, with Boris slightly in the lead.

"Damn, she's right!" one guy, who had swam back to shore upon realizing he'd lose, shouted. "Hey, Nagi, go faster!" he yelled.

"Don't let Boris win!" another guy yelled.

Izumi looked at Makoto in shock still over this, but then smiled herself. If her friend was willing to cheer on Souichiro and she said that he wasn't such a bad guy, then maybe she should do so too. "Do your best, Souichiro-san!" she yelled. Some girls nearby also started to yell out similar things. Though the true warrior was indeed a scary individual, now that they thought about, he was just like Boris: quiet and liked to keep to himself. That didn't necessarily make him bad.

Souichiro, being able to hear them clearly thanks to his heightened senses courtesy of a passive red feather ability he took, was surprised. No, he was shocked. Never had anyone ever cheered him on before save for Aya. But now here he had almost his whole class yelling for him to do his best.

He nearly remained still in the water, but he gained a small smirk on his face. Then he started trying to catch up with the others.

From a distance, he was being watched. The person watching him was none other than Masataka via a pair of binoculars he was using. "There he is…" he muttered to himself, watching as Souichiro sped up in swimming. He sighed and put the binoculars down. Memories of his last fight with Souichiro began to play in his head. This was then followed up by the knowledge that Souichiro may very well be even further along under Sohaku's control and possibly even stronger than before too. The situation wasn't exactly favorable.

"So the kid is swimming?" Maya asked from somewhere behind him.

Masataka nodded. "Yeah. He's taking part in some class event or something," he replied.

"Huh. That's good. At least we know now that Sohaku isn't gaining any more control over him," Maya said with a bit of a smile.

Masataka nodded again, this time in agreement. "You got that right. But captain…"

Maya gazed at Masataka. "Yeah?"

"Why exactly are we here?" he asked with a bit of a comical sweat drop.

Maya raised an eyebrow. "Keeping an eye on the kid from a distance of course," she answered, confused by Masataka's question.

"No, that not. What I meant was why are we relaxing here on the beach?" Masataka asked. The reason behind his question was that the Juken Club was currently relaxing a very good distance away from where the class was at, in order to be sure that Souichiro doesn't sense them.

Masataka was currently wearing simple dark blue swimming trunks, revealing his toned body. Ever since his fight with Souichiro, he had been training every now and then alongside his brother in his brother's training. As a result, he managed to put on a bit of muscle, going from having the lean build he once had to having a more muscled one. His body resembled that of Mitsuomi's back when Mistuomi and Maya had first met, complete with wiry arms and legs, a lightly toned chest and washboard abs. Despite his mechanical hand and the scar he had on his face now courtesy of Souichiro, many girls would have considered him quite attractive.

Masataka was doing his best not to look at Maya, as the girl in question was wearing a rather small black two piece bikini. The elder Natsume sister's chest strained the top considerably while the bottom half of the bikini did little to hide her slender, but firm legs. Combined with an equally slender waistline and hourglass figure, Maya was the walking wet dream of guys. It also helped that she was currently rubbing some sun screen on herself.

Maya chuckled almost a little sheepishly. "Well, I figured that ever since Souichiro disappeared on us, we've been too wound up, never really relaxing. I thought we could also just use this time to try and unwind a bit," she explained.

From close-by, Aya could be seen in a yellow bikini much like her sister's as far as size went. Given that Aya wasn't very far behind Maya in body measurements and build, Masataka was hardpressed not to watch as Aya ran to the water and leapt in it, doing a perfect dive, her more than ample assets bouncing as she had ran. Masataka suppressed a gulp.

Near Aya was Bob, dressed in black swimming trunks with a sports logo on the left part of it, running into the water as well, letting loose a yell of delight. He was clearly one of the more excitable people when it came to a time to relax. This almost childlike glee at being at the beach was at odds with his heavily muscled physique, a sight that would make almost anyone else his age feel quite intimidated, especially when combined with his height.

Kagesada was also relaxing, lying down on a white lounge chair, his eyes closed in apparent joy. Like Bob, Kagesada's height was rather intimidating, but while he was also well muscled, he had much more lanky build than Bob and so wasn't so terrifying to normal people, though he'd still be a rather curious sight to behold right now; the lounge chair was meant for someone shorter and so his legs hung off the end of it considerably.

As for Shinichiro, the alien-like teen was dressed in plain grey swimming trunks with a design of a stereotypical alien on the side of it. He was currently using his own pair of binoculars to observe the girls of the class, particularly enjoying the sight as some of them jumped up and down. "Ah, it's been a while," he muttered to himself. It has been some time since he had ever done anything like this.

Masataka just twitched in what could have been annoyance at this. "Well, you do have a point there, captain," he said to Maya.

Maya sighed. "I've already graduated you know? I'm not the captain of the club anymore. You are."

Masataka chuckled sheepishly. "Force of habit, I guess," he responded.

Maya smiled and then turned over onto her front, exposing to Masataka her shapely, toned backside and firm rear. The teen promptly blushed and turned away. But then he quickly shook off the blush and looked back at the class off in the distance. "Sure hope things turn out okay," he said.

Sometime later, back at the class camp, Souichiro, now dressed in black sweat pants and a loose grey shirt, was feeling a bit miffed. And slightly embarrassed; the swimming event had ended with him coming in first place, while Boris came in second and Kenichi came in third. The class, though still extremely wary of Souichiro's Ki, were considerably more relaxed around him than before, most likely due to how Makoto seemed to have taken the first step in trying to get him more involved. They had a good laugh at how he had overshot the checkpoint and Souichiro had actually looked a little sheepish at this as he had gotten a medal.

But now, it was late, the afternoon giving way to night and the students were all getting ready to settle in for the night. Souichiro got his bed, not having to deal with bunkmates. He was currently outside however, a little ways away from the cabins that the class was using. He observed as Nijima was cooking something over a fire, apparently going to share it with some of the Shinpaku Alliance members. He noticed Boris watching as well from behind one of the cabins. "Probably orders from his master," he thought, thinking of no other reason why Boris would be trying to observe the Shinpaku Alliance. Nijima seemed to notice Boris watching as he started to look around. Boris at that moment backed away.

Souichiro snorted at that, kind of amused at how the soldier-like teen really took things seriously. Then Nijima saw him and froze. The alien teen then stared at the true warrior and shivered as Souichiro stared back. "Annoying little…" Souichiro muttered as Nijima looked away, definitely remembering when Nijima had tried to spy on him.

Souichiro then turned and walked a little farther away. As he did so, he remembered that day he chased Nijima. He recalled how before he spotted Nijima, he had to use Ki to activate the red feather ability to enhance his hearing. But he just realized that earlier when he was swimming, he had clearly heard his classmates cheering for him as though they were yelling in his ears. His eyesight and smell were likewise enhanced. Without him using Ki. This both intrigued and worried Souichiro. "What does it mean?" he thought, as he tried to think of why this was happening. He even spent about ten minutes after changing out of his swimming trunks to use some of his red feather abilities and found himself performing them with little to no Ki. It was as if he was evolving, growing into an even more complete form, one that was just so powerful that Ki was just no longer required to use red feather abilities. He pondered if it was due to Sohaku.

"Shit, this just keeps going on and on…" he muttered, scratching the back of his head. He had to figure out what to do. He couldn't be waiting around like this anymore; with every day that passes, he receives no news of new red feathers to go after and he had a good feeling that Sohaku may be rearing his head again in his head; he's been too quiet since he nearly killed Kenichi.

He walked further away from the cabin. Had he not been so deep in thought, Souichiro would have noticed some men dressed in the same style of military clothing Boris usually wore approaching the cabins. Boris's fellow soldiers have finally shown up.

* * *

Whew, that took quite a while. Damn, my fingers hurt. Probably from typing and writing so much; had to do a considerable amount of writing for a test recently. Thank God I got it done, ha ha ha.

Anyways, sorry for getting this out so late; had an essay to do and also had to study for three tests in the same week. But now that I don't have to worry too much about tests again until maybe a few weeks from now, I should hopefully be able to get started on the next chapter relatively soon. But I probably won't be getting out the next chapter for maybe a few weeks.

But aside from that, thanks for reading! Hope you enjoyed this chapter and be sure to drop a review!


	17. Chapter 17

Whew, I feel kinda beat. Had to do an essay, which I got out of the way, and study quite a bit for some upcoming tests and having to do a project for my internship, which I still am doing. It is somewhat tiring, but nothing I can't handle, that's for sure.

But getting back on topic here, here is the next chapter! I plan to start getting the Juken Club and Souichiro more involved in the story from now on!

Chapter 17

As the soldiers approached, Boris was currently speaking with Kyoko, though it was mainly Kyoko doing most of the talking. "Have you joined any four man teams for the mountain climbing?" she asked the teen.

"No, I will be alone…" he responded, somewhat wary of Kyoko; just about a minute ago, she had managed to sneak up on him. He reasoned that it must be because she gives off no Ki.

Kyoko then started to flail her arms about in comedic fashion. "Eh? But you can't! The other exchange students are already blending in!" she cried.

And she was right; not far from where she and Boris stood, Rachel could be seen talking to a few girls, them trying to get Rachel to join their team for the mountain climbing event. And Ethan was also nearby, some girls asking if he could carry their bags for them when during the event.

Kyoko then turned to face the students in the area. Putting her hands together, she let out a shout. "Someone, please take Boris-kun into your team!" she yelled.

A good portion of the students there stopped what they were doing to look at the young teacher before looking amongst themselves. A moment later, a good portion of them shook their heads, gesturing that they already have full teams.

Kyoko looked down, feeling a little sad for Boris, but then looked at two guys standing close by and saw them by themselves. "Ah, is it just you two in your group? Then take Boris-kun!" she said happily, suddenly shoving Boris towards said guys, who looked very surprised at the suddenness of this. "Have fun!" Kyoko said before taking off.

"Er… hey," the guys said a moment later to Boris, the surprise wearing off.

But Boris didn't respond to them, instead hesitantly and discreetly picking up a small headphone. Earlier, he had contacted his master, Alexander Gaider, and he was told to finish the mission he had been assigned. For reasons he couldn't explain, he had felt some form of nervousness for informing his fellow soldiers of the go-ahead.

He suppressed the urge to gulp. He then clenched his fist tightly. "Hmph! Hesitation only cripples the mind!" he thought as he shook off the nervousness. Switching on the headphone, he spoke. "It's me. begin the operation."

Not far away from him, Kenichi and Nijima was sitting next to each other. Nijima's ears twitched as he heard movement from the surrounding forest. "Hey, I sense many men in the forest," he told Kenichi as he tried to remain calm. He was getting a very uneasy vibe right now.

Kenichi nodded, his expression serious and determined. "I know!"

Meanwhile, from somewhere else in the forest, the Juken Club had set up a small camp for themselves near a mountain, the elevation of where they were at giving them a decent view of the forest and the class. A few hours ago, they had changed out of their swimwear and into more casual clothes. Maya, dressed in faded blue jeans and a snug black tank top, observed the class with binoculars. "Looks like they're about to go on that mountain climbing event right now," she remarked as she watched the students pack up their stuff.

She then shifted her gaze with the binoculars to her left a bit. "And the kid is just sitting around," she told the others, who were all gathered around a small campfire behind her, eating some fish that Bob had caught from the sea.

"Souchiro is just sitting around? That's really it?" Bob asked.

Maya nodded. "Looks that way. Seems to be really thinking about something." She paused for a moment. "Wait. A girl is approaching him."

That got the Juken Club's attention. "W-What?" Aya stuttered out. She sounded somewhat jealous despite the current circumstances.

Maya tried not to chuckle at her sister's attitude. "She's asking him something. The angle I'm seeing her from though keeps me from trying to lip-read." She then fell silent and watched as Souichiro gave the girl a nod and said girl smiled. Souichiro then slowly got up and followed her back to where the other students were at. Maya was about to comment on this when Souichiro suddenly paused in his steps and look at her. She froze, wondering if he had somehow spotted her, but a closer look with the binoculars revealed to her that Souichiro was scanning the part of the forest around, looking for something else. "That was kind of close," she muttered.

Masataka perked up. "What do you mean captain?"

"For a second there, I thought he had spotted me. But it looked like he saw or heard something else." Maya paused and started to do a sweep of the forest with the binoculars, curious as to what Souichiro had apparently sensed as she had caught him slightly narrow his eyes before he began walking again. It took a good minute or two to carefully look over the area before her, but eventually Maya saw what had grabbed Souichiro's attention: soldiers and a rather large number of them too.

"Looks like the class has some unexpected company," Maya said to the group. She turned around to see the Juken Club with looks of confusion. "There are soldiers in the forest. They seem to be trailing the class and I can guess it's not for a good reason."

That got their attention, evidenced by when they all stood up to their full height in shock. "Soldiers! What would guys like them be doing here?" Kagesada practically demanded. He knew that this wouldn't have turned out too well, but he definitely hadn't been expecting soldiers. He suppressed a shudder as he immediately knew that they would have to get involved now and that there was a possibility of the soldiers carrying guns.

Shinichiro rubbed his chin in deep thought. "I wonder…" He looked at Maya. "One of the YOMI members was named Boris right?"

Maya nodded, having a good idea of what Shinichiro was going to say right now.

Bob and Kagesada were different cases. "What are you getting at?" Bob asked.

Shinichiro looked at him. "Remember when we had met up with the Shinpaku Alliance? They told us what they knew about the YOMI members in their class and this Boris was apparently a soldier of sorts. It seems pretty obvious that these men are just like him."

"So then they all trained under the same master?" Aya asked. Masataka also looked as if he was about to ask that question.

Shinichiro pondered that. "Possibly. We can't be sure until we see them in action," he stated plainly.

Maya sighed as she pondered what could possibly happen next. "In any case, we need to get ready." And with that said, the Juken Club nodded in unison and started to pack up.

Several minutes later, back at the camp, the students were all gathered in one group around the superintendent, who had been informing them of the event they were about to take part in. "Each team chooses their course. Read the map and aim for the summit," he had said before dismissing them to choose said courses.

Moments later, one group chose their course and began their walk. It consisted of Nijima, Kenichi, and Miu who were all dressed in casual clothes, Nijima most of all while Kenichi wore a sweater to stay warm and Miu simply wore her usual spandex outfit and a snug white shirt over it. Also a part of their group was Matsui, the Shinpaku Alliance's flag-wielder and another Shinpaku member, Kurokawa, both of whom were still dressed in their school uniform.

Nijima was the one leading the group, standing in the forefront with a map. "They chose the B course," he said, referring to YOMI, "we probably won't run into them." Despite this statement though, Nijima was a bit on edge. The men he had sensed earlier seemed to have somehow figured out that he could sense them and put more effort into hiding their presence. And their effort showed; Nijima could barely sense them anymore. The only thing that set his mind at ease was the Juken Club. In fact, he had been the one to inform Maya of the class camp in the first place.

He was snapped out of his thoughts though as a boot could be heard suddenly stomping down on the ground. "A real leader should consider the possibility of an ambush while passing the mountain from low ground," a voice said. The voice belonged to none other than Boris, dressed in full combat gear and standing atop a pile of logs that he had apparently set up on a small cliff near them.

The group looked up just in time to see Boris flipping off of the log pile, his quick movement making them come loose and roll off the cliff. They had hardly any time to prepare to dodge the now incoming logs when Boris shot past them and tackled Kenichi. He struck the Ryozanpaku so quickly and with such force that they both went rolling right off a nearby ledge.

"Kenichi!" Miu cried as she saw this happen. Inwardly cursing at how they had been caught off guard, she turned to go after the two, but then she heard the logs get closer. With a grunt, the granddaughter of the Invincible Superman whirled around and delivered a powerful kick to the side of an incoming log that had been about to hit Nijima, getting a startled cry out of the alien-like teen.

The log seemed to crack under the power of Miu's kick and it was knocked away. However, there were a few more logs that were falling. Taking note of this immediately, Miu quickly moved past Matsui and jumped into the air, slamming her back into a log with enough force and momentum behind the blow to send it flying back. But, Miu wasn't done just yet. Using the momentum of her back blow, Miu twisted onto the log she just hit and kicked off of it, launching herself at yet another log and she knocked it away with a kick.

She did the same thing with just a few more logs too, deliberately hitting them with the least amount of power needed to do the job, something that Nijima commented upon as he, Matsui, and Kurokawa watched in amazement as the logs she hit stacked up against each other, forming a makeshift tent.

During her deflection of the logs, Miu's hair braid had come undone and her glasses had fallen off, but she didn't care; all that mattered now was Kenichi. "Kenichi!" she yelled in concern as she leapt from where she had knocked the logs over to the edge where Kenichi and Boris had fell. She glanced over the edge for a few seconds, worry eating away at her as she tried to determine if they had managed to survive the fall.

However, just as she was about to make up her mind on what to do next, she and the others heard someone sliding down the side of a slope. A sigh could be heard.

Turning, Miu, Nijima, Matsui, and Kurokawa saw a man as he touched down on the ground. The man was relatively young, just about a few years older than them. He was also very tall, towering over Miu, who happened to be the closest one to him and had a hulking physique shown off by the grey army jacket and cargo pants he wore. He took a step towards Miu, his black boots clomping on the ground as he did so.

"Who are you?" Nijima yelled, frightened by the man; the man was radiating a Ki that was easily around the level of some of the stronger disciples he has seen.

The man ignored Nijima, instead focusing solely on Miu. "Even though it is the order of colonel Alexander Gaider…" he slowly said as he pulled out an army knife with his left hand and a larger, slightly curved hunting knife with his right hand, "I can't believe I traveled all the way to Japan to kill civilians." He then smiled, revealing his surprisingly sharp teeth. "I'll finish you fast."

Miu took up a fighting stance, placing her left leg forward and right one back while raising both arms forward in a defensive posture. "These movements… you're a soldier," she stated, ignoring the Ki the man was giving off, while giving off some of her own, signifying that she was ready to fight.

Nijima took a step back and gulped. "I thought something might be wrong. As expected of YOMI! They have enormous backup!" he thought.

Then that was when the man struck. Letting out a short battle cry, he lunged forward and swiped at Miu with the large of his knifes, the strike aimed for her neck. But Miu saw it coming and she rushed forward, placed her hands on the man's shoulders and used it to spring herself right over him.

"Che, she's an agile one," he commented aloud as Miu was still airborne. He turned around to face Nijima, Matsui, and Kurokawa. "I'll start with the easy ones then!" he yelled as he moved closer to the logs that served as a barricade between him and the three teens. With a swift kick, the logs were then knocked aside, forcing the three Shinpaku Alliance members to move back to avoid getting hit by the logs.

"No!" Miu shouted as she saw this. As she yelled, she ran forward while the man was busy with the logs and deliver a powerful kick to the side of his head, earning her a yell of pain from the soldier, though he still remained standing. "Everyone, run away! I'll handle this!" she said towards Nijima and his two comrades, who definitely followed her advice.

"Ha, you want to let them run!" the man said as he fully recovered from the quick and moved in front of Miu, surprising her with his recovery speed. He threw a left punch, which Miu managed to sidestep, but he followed it up with a right one, but Miu managed to parry it by smacking her left arm against the right forearm.

Miu took one step forward before lightly jumping into the air and throwing a kick at the man, but he proved to be faster than she expected as he pulled back his left arm in time to guard against the attack.

"We are colonel Alexander Gaider's special forces! Don't think you can stop us here, Furinji's granddaughter!" the soldier yelled as he then thrust his left arm forward in an uppercut. Miu, still being in midair from her kick, managed to bend her upper-body back enough to avoid the knife that the soldier still had in his hand, though the blade did make a tear in her shirt just in between her breasts.

After the barely dodged attack, Miu responded in kind by taking the man's head in her hands and slamming a knee right into his nose, generating a brief and low cracking sound. But Miu wasn't done just yet. Jumping up, she spun around a bit before she began to fall and once she was close enough, she slammed both of her feet into the back of the man's head. "Furinji Benikawasemi!" she yelled as the attack landed. The man grunted in pain and began to fall back.

Miu landed, believing the fight to now be over. However, this turned out to be a false belief on her part as the man somehow managed to find the will to stay conscious and he suddenly lunged forward and started to stab wildly at Miu with his larger knife, hoping that one of his attacks would land. Miu was so taken aback by the sudden recovery that she was barely able to avoid the attack.

"Every student of Kouryou High School must be killed! Orders are absolute!" he roared at Miu.

"What!" Miu thought, completely shocked by this revelation. The statement was something she hadn't expected, so much so that she nearly slowed. And that was enough for the man to notice.

Smirking, he stabbed once more, aiming right for Miu's heart. Miu blinked in shock as she realized what was about to happen and began to move, but she knew immediately that she had been just a bit too slow; the blow would land, but thankfully it wouldn't be fatal.

However, the blow didn't land.

What happened next was something neither Miu nor the soldier expected as suddenly the latter was struck by strong elbow blow, strong enough to send him flying away several yards.

He hit the ground hard and gasped for air as the blow had struck him in the side of his torso, forcing all the oxygen out of his lungs. "W-Who-?" he began.

"Hey there." Miu looked to her left, where the attack had come from. Standing there was none other than Maya, dressed in greenish-black pants and a black tank top. "Hope I'm not interrupting anything here.

Meanwhile, Kenichi and Boris finally landed from their fall, splashing into a nearby stream, scaring away the fish in the process. The both of them were slightly disoriented from the fall, but it wasn't something that would put them out of commission that easily, as the two quickly shrugged it off and stood up. Boris leaned forward, arms at the ready to grab Kenichi, while said teen was still getting up.

"It is time we finish this. I will beat you, Shirahama Kenichi!" Boris yelled in determination before charging at the still getting up disciple.

Kenichi grunted as he put up his arms in time to block Boris's outstretched arms, the YOMI member having been planning on grabbing him and undoubtedly getting him in a stranglehold. Pushing the command sambo teen back, Kenichi leapt back as well, trying to put some distance in between himself and Boris so that he can at least have some kind breathing room.

"Hey, just what is it that you have planned? What's with all of the men on this mountain!" Kenichi yelled as he took up a karate stance. Concerned he may be for himself right now, but the men he and the others had sensed earlier worried him more as he knew they were out there, most likely observing the class.

"It is our mission to kill everyone!" Boris responded as he charged at Kenichi, forcing the teen to jump as high as he can, though Boris jumped right after him.

"What!" Kenichi cried as he spun around countered a sudden knee attack of Boris's with one of his own. "What do you mean by kill everyone?"

The clash of their attacks was enough to force them both back onto the ground, Boris landing on a nearby rock in the stream while Kenichi landed in the water. "My master is the type of person who kills everyone related to an operation!" Boris turned his head to face Kenichi. "Today, everyone who enters this mountain will be killed!"

Kenichi struggled to move through the stream, the current being quite strong. "Are… are…" He finally gathered the strength to leap out of the water. "ARE YOU KIDDING ME!" he roared in anger as he went for punch to Boris.

The YOMI member looked ready to counter the incoming attack with one of his own, but he never got that chance. Suddenly, when Kenichi was less than six feet away from Boris, he and Boris both heard two hands suddenly press up against Boris's exposed back. Then without a warning, they heard someone mutter something. "Hakka Soudou Sho!" Boris didn't know what him. The hands backed off for the briefest of seconds before slamming into Boris's back again, with such devastating force that it knocked Boris straight forward, barreling just over the stream for over several yards before slowing down, and even then he skipped across the water a few times like a large stone before he finally splashed in it.

"Guh!" he cried out as he tried to stand, but the power of the sudden strike had hurt him pretty badly, his body, mainly his back now, throbbing with pain as he tried to get back up.

Kenichi came to a bit of an abrupt landing as now that he had no target before him, his punch was futile. He landed ungracefully on a large rock. Righting himself immediately, he looked to see who had just attacked Boris. His eyes widened. "You!"

Before him on the rock where Boris was at just now stood none other than Masataka, arms still outstretched from his attack just now, and dressed in greenish-black pants, a black short sleeve shirt and a dark green jacket over it. "Huh, looks like this army colored clothes really works," he commented aloud to himself as he then put his hands down and observed the clothes. "It really does help me blend into the forest a bit."

"Masataka-san!" Kenichi yelled, getting said person's attention.

Masataka then looked at Kenichi and gave him a sheepish wave of the hand. "Hey," he said just as sheepishly.

If he was going to say anything else, he didn't get a chance to as they both heard Boris finally stand up again. "You!" Boris growled out, somehow recognizing him.

Masataka's eyes then grew dead serious as he took note of this situation. Kenichi did too. Kenichi was about to step forward to fight Boris as the YOMI member once more assumed his usual stance, but Masataka jumped forward, landing on another rock in front of Kenichi.

"M-Masataka-san?" Kenichi asked.

Masataka took his normal fighting stance, his left arm at angle in which the elbow in sync with his right fist. "Kenichi-san." This got Kenichi to unconsciously gulp at how serious Masataka sounded. "Let me fight him."

As this was going on, Tanimoto was walking with his group, consisting of a few girls and Kyoko and the superintendent. Tanimoto, due to his training with his master, had absolutely no problem with the hiking, but the girls, lagging a bit behind him, were clearly struggling, evident by the sweat rolling down the side of their faces. The difference between them in physical ability amazed the girls.

"Wow! Tanimoto has climbed for so long, but he's not even tired!" one of the girls commented.

Tanimoto nearly broke out into a bit of a sweat, slightly worried that his cover as a relatively weak teen would be slipping. "Ah… yeah…. Are you okay? You need a break?" he asked, trying to get their attention off of him.

He was thankful when the girls did ask for a break and so when they all sat down to rest, Tanimoto did the same and pretended to look a little winded. Kyoko, dressed in a simple track suit, looked about as tired as her female students. The superintendent, also dressed in a tracksuit, looked like he could still keep going though. "You kids don't have the strength anymore? How sad?" he said with a chuckle. "Kids these days… right, Ono-sensei?"

Kyoko didn't respond, being far too tired to take note of what the superintendent just asked. "Boris-kun's group must be quite far now, right?"

Tanimoto would have snorted in amusement at this, but he didn't for he took note of another group approaching them, mainly coming from behind Kyoko and the superintendent. This new group consisted of three people around his age, two of them guys while the last member was girl. They all sported military styled haircuts and were well-built, having a lean, athletic build that Tanimoto easily identified as that of martial artists. That right there began to set off warning bells in his head, but it was the military styled beanies and the way they seemed to be creeping up on the teachers that made him ready to attack.

Kyoko and the superintendent, along with the girls of the group, were completely oblivious to this new group though. "I'm worried. I'll go look," Kyoko said as she managed to regain enough stamina to jog away, eager to see how Boris was doing with his group.

"Ah," was all the superintendent managed to get out, having not expected Kyoko to just take off like that. He began to move after her. "Hey, don't run in the mountains!" he called out after her before sighing upon seeing that his words had no effect. "Geez, still so panicky…"

From just a few feet behind him, one of the mysterious teens silently crept up on the superintendent, pulling out of a pocket a small amount of steel string. They were planning on strangling the man to death with it.

They didn't get the chance for that as Tanimoto immediately ran up to the person holding the steel string and smacked the hand aside with his own and landed a kick to the side of the person's face, hitting them hard enough to send him tumbling off a nearby ledge.

This was done so fast that the superintendent never noticed this. "But after becoming a teacher, I have the impression that she is becoming more responsible," he noted about Kyoko with a smile, completely oblivious to what was going merely a few feet behind him.

Tanimoto, after hitting the first of the teens, quickly landed and delivered a shoulder tackle to the other guy of the group, his first attack having completely taken him and his female companion off guard. The tackle knocked him into his comrade and they both went sailing off the edge that the first man had been knocked over. Doing a brief flip, Tanimoto followed after them.

This second attack of his did get the attention of his group though. "Hmm?" The superintendent looked behind him, swearing to himself that he just heard something. "What was that sound?"

"Eh? Where's Tanimoto?" one of the girls noticed.

Said teen was currently skidding down the side of the cliff, going after the mysterious group. The first one he had struck was still tumbling, the man unable to regain his footing and the female member was just barely keeping herself from ending up like him. The last man of the group was the sole exception. He was able to recover from Tanimoto's attack just now to keep from falling and was currently skidding down the side of the cliff as well. He pulled out a knife and aimed it at Tanimoto as though it were some kind of gun.

Much to Tanimoto's surprise, this knife had a small switch on the side. When the man pressed it, the knife blade shot off the hilt and towards Tanimoto at surprising speeds. But the blond teen managed to catch it between two fingers before it could actually hit him.

At this same time, all four of them finally reached the bottom of the cliff, landing on solid ground now. Tanimoto held up the knife blade. "Using old soviet special forces dagger techniques and the assassin's eye… doesn't look like Boris's usual troops. Are you Russian soldiers?" he asked. When he got no answer a few seconds after that, he stood tall and tossed the weapon aside. "Though I wanna say that this is none of my business, I do care a little. Why attack the teachers? Isn't Kenichi your only target?"

Once again, he got no response out of them. Instead, the three began to take on fighting stances. Their next course of action now ridiculously obvious, Tanimoto sighed. "Looks like I'm just going to have to get the info out of you guys the hard way."

Meanwhile, another group of students was currently making their way to the summit. It was a large one too, consisting of about eight or nine people as two groups had met up earlier to form this one. Amongst them were the two teens that were supposed to be on the same team as Boris, them wondering just where said teen took off to. Also members of this group were Souichiro, the true warrior walking alongside Makoto and Izumi with hands in pockets. He was still dressed in the clothes from earlier, though this time he was wearing black socks and shoes as well. He was silently thankful that he had changed into the clothes he was wearing now as it doubled as both sleepwear and casual clothes too; he hadn't known about this mountain climbing event until Makoto informed him earlier.

He was also honestly impressed and even a little shocked; the other members of the group were doing their best to keep moving despite his Ki. The fact that they were trying to act as casually as possible and even manage to carry on conversations in relatively calm voices only added to this. Makoto and Izumi were two of these people. He stayed quiet as he listened to their conversation.

Makoto, dressed in a simple dark blue shirt and black shorts, sighed. "I'm saying why? Why couldn't you join Shirahama's group?"

Izumi was dressed in a track suit and it was clear to everyone why that was; the girl was positively sweating, her having very little physical ability. "I got chased away by that alien!" she exclaimed.

That got Souichiro's attention. "Alien?"

Izumi slightly cringed, feeling Souichiro's nigh-emotionless eyes on her. "Yeah. Nijima-san," she answered.

"So that's his name…" he muttered.

Makoto looked at him. "You met him?" she asked, feeling a bit sorry for the true warrior. She felt this way because she knew that meeting the alien boy was simply something most people she knew found creepy, annoying, or both.

Souichiro's left eyebrow twitched. "Yeah. I guess you could say that." He remembered all too well how Nijima tried to stalk him for information.

Makoto snickered. "I bet it wasn't pleasant from your tone of voice either." The snicker then faded. "But enough of the alien. How are you liking our school so far?" she asked, wanting to make conversation to learn more about Souichiro. She couldn't deny that once she got past his terrifying presence, he was a very mysterious person.

Souichiro shrugged. "It's alright so far. Way more peaceful than the last one."

"Peaceful?" Makoto looked at him, confused.

Souichiro was about to answer, but then shifted his gaze to his right. He heard footsteps and a lot of them. They were light, so clearly people were trying to get close to the group without being heard. He narrowed his eyes; he could see some of the people following them. They were dressed in military gear, blending in with the trees, though not well enough to avoid his senses. "Soldiers?" he thought. Something was up and he had a feeling that it was bad.

"Souichiro-san?" He looked away from the soldiers and saw Makoto looking confused. "Something wrong?"

"Nah, it's nothing," he responded. He paused. "You two might want to catch up with the others." He pointed forward and both Makoto and Izumi looked. The rest of their group had moved on ahead a considerable distance.

Makoto looked back at him. "You sure?" she asked.

Souichiro nodded. "I'll catch up in a bit. Just wanna to enjoy the scenery alone for a while." He paused once more. "Not that I don't like you around or anything," he hastily added. He still found it amazing that Makoto could stand to be around him.

Makoto just looked at him for a few seconds before giving him a small smile and her and Izumi began to pick up their walking pace, trying to catch up with their classmates now.

Souichiro waited several seconds before he stopped walking. When he did so, he turned around suddenly, to see several soldiers now out in the open, walking up the path the class group had just traveled. His action took them by surprise and they froze where they were as they were hit full blast with his Ki. "Alright, just what the hell do you guys want?" he demanded.

The soldiers didn't answer, but instead tensed up. Souichiro got a little annoyed. He took one step towards them. As his foot made a cracking imprint in the ground, the soldier flinched slightly as Souichiro's Ki flared up a bit more. "Okay, you guys don't want to talk? Then let's-," he began, but didn't finish.

As he was speaking, from out of nowhere, two people shot past him, one clearly a girl and the other a guy, and the two new arrivals both slammed into nearby soldiers, knocking them back a considerable distance. Their fellow soldiers had to duck or move out of the way to avoid getting hit.

The soldiers then looked to see who had attacked just now. It was Ethan and Rachel. Ethan's imposing physique was being shown off in a rather tight shirt and light blue pants. He held in his hand the collar of a now unconscious soldier's jacket. His sister Rachel was dressed in a light brown collared shift, the button undone to expose a generous amount of cleavage while also wearing grey shorts that hugged her thighs tightly. In any other situation, her clothes would have had guys drooling over her, but the soldiers definitely weren't.

"Well… there goes my thunder…" Souichiro muttered.

Rachel stepped towards the soldiers. "Why? Why are you disturbing other people's fun time? Who are you!" she demanded.

Some of the soldiers seemed to growl in response to the questioning girl. "Are you YOMI's Rachel Stanley and Ethan Stanley and Nagi Souichiro? We are following One Shadow Nine Fists' Alexander Gaider's order! Don't cause trouble!" one of the soldiers, presumably the leader of this unit, growled out.

Souichiro got a little ticked off at how this soldier sounded and was about to move forward and make him pay for that, when Rachel once more spoke. "Eh? Boris's master?" she asked, an embarrassed blush on her face as she raised a hand to her mouth. "Oh no, I instinctively attacked when I felt killing intent. I feel so bad…"

She then smiled at the soldiers. "Please go ahead, go ahead," she said.

Without so much as a thank you, the soldier started walking past Rachel and Ethan. They were about to past by Souichiro as well, the true warrior surprised at how Rachel was acting.

"You think I would say that? You stupid bastards!" Rachel suddenly yelled. Without any warning, she and Ethan moved faster than the soldiers could react, getting right in front of their faces. The soldiers at the forefront of the group didn't have the smallest chance to do anything as Ethan unleashed a powerful upwards kick at one while his sister delivered a vicious right hook at another soldier. The attacks were so strong that the soldiers they struck were immediately knocked unconscious, they having been taken completely off guard.

Rachel then stepped forward, glaring at the shocked soldiers. "My master is the Smiling Steel Fist Diego Carlos! Other than him, I have no reason to listen to anyone else!"

The remaining soldiers were taken aback by Rachel's outburst, but then they quickly shook this off, growling at Ethan and Rachel. "You two dare-," one began as they all began to crowd around the two siblings.

That soldier was promptly punched. Not by Ethan nor by Rachel, but by Souichiro. This was made very clear when the unfortunate soldier went flying like a missile past the rest of the soldiers, at speeds that they could barely keep track of. Everyone watched as the soldier went flying through several trees without losing any speed, their mouths agape in shock as the soldier finally crashed into the ground a few dozen yards away from where they were at.

Souichiro's Ki increased in quantity, making the soldiers look at him while having Ethan and Rachel take a cautious step back. He clenched his right fist, the one he had used to just hit the soldier, tightly. "Alright, that's it," he said in a low voice, "this is the first time in a long time that I finally got some kind of chance to just chill, but you sons of bitches just had to come and ruin it all." He started walking towards the soldiers, the latter bunch stiffly assuming their fighting stances, though not before taking a few steps back. "and now I'm gonna kick all of your asses."

He was about to do just that, when Rachel suddenly spoke up. "Hey!"

Souichiro sighed and looked at her. "What?" He sounded very annoyed.

"Don't just think you can go stealing my spotlight!" Rachel said, "they are mine to beat!"

Souichiro just stared at her for several seconds before facing the soldiers again. "Do whatever the hell you want."

Rachel smirked. "Of course I will." She then assumed her fighting stance. From beside her, Ethan did the same, feeling obligated to help out.

The soldiers were feeling very unsure of themselves now; the three YOMI members before them weren't looking too happy with them.

Souichiro cracked his knuckles. "Ready for the beatdown?"

* * *

So what do you guys think? Good?

Man, I sure set up quite a few fights in this chapter! Oh yeah, you guys can definitely expect a lot of action to go down for the next chapter or two. Especially since I am finally beginning to start deviating slightly from the events of the HSDK manga. Hope you guys look forward to it.

Thanks for reading! Hope you enjoyed this chapter and be sure to leave a review!


	18. Chapter 18

Sorry for this late update guys! But you know how it is, classes, internship, the works. Had a test recently too so I had to study up for that a bit and also had to set up an appointment of sorts as part of a project. The end of my semester is approaching though, so there may or may not be a change in my updating times. I'll see how it turns out.

Thanks so much to everyone reviewing! I hope you enjoy the smack down Souichiro is about to lay on the soldiers!

Chapter 18

The soldiers didn't dare to make the first move, especially not after Souichiro's words just now. However, that didn't mean they were unwilling to attack; they were simply waiting for an opening rather than just blindly charging at the true warrior.

However, Rachel and Ethan were a different story. The American siblings were quick to move in on the soldiers, Ethan going for a powerful punch that sent one soldier flying while his sister was quick to get behind another soldier and suplex him into the ground with enough power to crack it a bit. But other soldiers were quick to get surround them, but the siblings were considerably stronger than most of them and it was only a matter of seconds before they started to attack the other soldiers around them.

The soldiers surrounding them went down rather fast, these ones being the weakest of all the soldiers that had come onto the mountain. Some did try to go for a grapple hold on Ethan, but the larger teen was strong, easily picking them up and tossing them aside. The ones that tried to throw a good few punches at Rachel were missing, Rachel using her superior speed to bob and weave between the attacks.

As this went on, the soldiers standing before Souichiro have yet to do anything still. "You going to just stand there all day? Fine," Souichiro said. Then, much to their surprise and confusion, Souichiro spat at the closest soldier, to his left.

However, the spit had only made it two feet away from his mouth before the true warrior suddenly reached out with his left hand, said limb passing over the spit. To the shock of the soldiers, the spit, though not touching the hand, moved in the same general direction as the hand before Souichiro pulled the hand back and thrust it forward at the soldier.

Suddenly, the spit that had been following his hand, shot out like a bullet, breaking the sound barrier. The spit grew slightly as it moved, slamming right into the middle of the soldier's chest with such force that the other soldiers around him could hear his sternum crack a bit. The soldier went flying back several feet due to the startling power and momentum of the attack, the man crying out in pain as he did so.

The soldiers couldn't help but follow his flight path with their shocked stares. This proved to be a mistake on their part; Souichiro then charged forward, leaping slightly as to get right into the center of the whole group. When he made contact with the ground, it cracked and caved in under him a bit, the noise drawing the soldier's attention back to him. They promptly attacked, eager to avenge their just fallen comrade.

But such an action was too late. Souichiro snorted a bit at how slow their incoming punches, kicks, and grapples compared to him and he let one punch connect with his face, only for the soldier who just landed the punch to gain a pained expression on his face as the knuckles in the fist fractured. Souichiro was considerably more durable than anyone any of them have ever encountered. Any comment he might have had about this though left unstated as Souichiro decided to pay him back, delivering a punch of his own. Souchiro's fist made contact with the right cheek of the soldier and knocked him out immediately. Other soldiers were forced to move out of the way to avoid having the now flying soldier crash into them.

The ones that didn't have to dodge kept on with their attacks, but Souichiro easily avoided them all, taking a few steps back to do so. Then his hair seemed to just spring to life, several large strands of it reaching out to a nearby female soldier and wrapping tightly around her. She cried out in slight pain as the strands turned out to be sharp as knifes. Due to how the strands grabbed her, her somewhat ample chest was rather prominent now, but Souichiro and the other soldiers took no notice of this and Souchiro merely commanded his hair to toss her aside into a nearby tree.

The soldiers were stunned by the sight of this, but were quick now to get over it; they were beginning to get slightly used to what Souichiro was doing now and they knew that they had no choice but to if they didn't want to be caught off guard. They noted how Souichiro was staying put as his hair began to return to normal. Seeing a possible opening, they ran at him, some of the soldiers letting out a battle cry as they did so.

But Souichiro saw it coming and actually couldn't help but somewhat feel his lacking respect for them rise a bit; they saw an opening and they were taking it. But Souichiro was different from before, when he left openings between his attacks. Ever since he had joined YOMI, he had been talked into being a disciple for one of the One Shadow Nines Fists. Having been trained under Isshinsai Ogata, Souichiro's already impressive fighting skills have improved greatly, going through a similar training regime that another one of Isshinsai's – or Kensei as he liked to be called – disciple, one who had tremendous talent, but no real martial arts training. His 'master,' who also was the one to introduce him to Yami and YOMI, even managed to put him through training hard enough to increase his physical prowess considerably too, though Souichiro currently saw no reason to show off the results of his training yet, especially to people that could barely count as a warm up.

Even as his hair kept moving about a bit, Souichiro already launched a kick at another soldier. His attack was too fast for the soldier to dodge let alone even see coming. In no time at all, this soldier went sailing through the air, with most of his ribs now broken.

The other soldier merely growled and began to stand down, trying to figure out some sort of attack that will actually work. "Shit…" one of them muttered. It was a word running through the minds of all of the soldiers, finding themselves completely out of their league.

As they tried to deal with him, the other soldiers were currently trying to overwhelm Rachel and Ethan. However, while the two may not be anywhere near the level of strength their fellow YOMI member has, they were still a cut above the soldiers. Rachel moved in on one soldier, leaping a bit high into the air before hitting the unfortunate man with a strong dropkick to the face. As for Ethan, the huge teen charged forward at two close-by soldiers, ramming one with his shoulder before quickly spinning around and hitting the other with a powerful left punch that made the target start seeing stars.

Rachel laughed in glee, happy to be able to fight. Ethan, in contrast, remained completely silent, not even grunting as he pressed on with his attacks against the soldiers. "Take this!" Rachel yelled confidently as she ran right at a close by male soldier. Said soldier went for a punch to Rachel's face, but the female YOMI simply ducked under the swing and wrapped both arms around his legs. Before the soldier could react, Rachel then pulled back a bit, causing him to fall over, the back of his head hitting the ground, though not hard enough to knock him out. But Rachel wasn't done just yet, as she showcased her surprising strength by beginning to spin around, hands still gripping the soldier's legs tightly. Other soldiers had to take a step back to avoid getting hit by their spinning comrade, but right when they did so, Rachel let go of the soldier's legs and the man went flying off like a missile, Rachel having built up an impressive amount of momentum right before letting go.

He sailed right over his comrades, who simply continued to rush her and her brother. At this point, some of them began to pull out knifes. "Oho? You think a knife is going to do you any good?" Rachel asked with a sneer.

One of the now armed soldiers merely snarled in response and charged right at Rachel, who ran forward a bit to meet the challenge. The soldier let loose with a wild, but carefully calculated slash that was aimed for Rachel's arm, in the hopes that disabling a limb would make her easier to beat. But Rachel managed to swerve out of the way and take the knife arm in a hold and then proceeded to grip tightly. Because of the angle she was holding the arm at in her own arms, a bone or two in the soldier's arm broke. The soldier let out a cry of pain, but fought through it enough to try and kick Rachel with his closest leg. Rachel merely undid her hold, her attack already completed and merrily skipped back before hitting the man with a vicious punch.

The man staggered and tried to recover, but then another soldier was sent barreling into him with enough force to knock them both out. Rachel turned to where the sudden soldier had come from and saw her brother approaching. "Hey! I had it taken care of!" she yelled, angry at her fun being cut just a bit short.

Ethan merely looked down in a bit of shame. "Sorry," he muttered before he suddenly dodged an incoming knife throw by a soldier from behind. The knife that just missed now barreled straight to Rachel, who merely smacked it aside with the back of her right hand. Immediately following the deflection, Rachel ran as fast as she could at the soldier who threw the knife and kneed him as hard as she can in the face, breaking his nose upon contact, evident by the crack that was heard and the amount of blood that sprayed out from the new wound. The soldier grunted in pain before falling back, unconscious.

Rachel then turned and smirked at Ethan. "Now we're even," she said to her brother before she once more charged the remaining soldiers. She was happy again; more soldiers were beginning to show up in order to try and take down the three YOMI members. She didn't mind that fact one bit, even if most of them were heading to Souichiro right now.

Meanwhile, Maya was lending Miu a hand. More specifically, she was taking over for Miu in the fight against the tall and now quite angry soldier.

"Damn you!" the soldier growled out as he tried to land a blow on the platinum-haired young woman, who was proving herself to be quite agile as she ducked and weaved past all of his attempted attacks with his weapons.

Maya said nothing in response. Instead she calmly analyzed his attack pattern, taking note of any openings in between or during his attacks. She wasn't too worried; the man may certainly be fast and highly skilled with his weapons, but she definitely had him beat in speed.

Then, right after the large man missed Maya once more with an upwards angle swipe, Maya made her move. She moved in with barely a sound and delivered a well placed punch to the soldier's solar plexus. The soldier grunted in pain and naturally recoiled from the hit, but even as he staggered back, he still attempted to attack, going for a thrusting attack with his knife in an attempt to stab Maya.

Maya sidestepped the potentially fatal blow and kicked the soldier in the side of his right knee. This had the effect of making the larger person drop onto said knee. "Guh! You bi-!" he began to curse, but never finished. For as soon as he was on the knee, Maya performed one of her favorite techniques: Natsume Goushin-Ryū Radotenko.

She charged at the down man and slammed a shoulder right into his face. Upon her attack making contact, the busty Natsume sister unleashed a large amount of Ki, enhancing her strike even more. The soldier yelled out in pain as he was knocked back more than several yards before slamming through a few trees. He was unconscious before he hit the ground.

"Hmm," Maya said as she then stood to her full height, "looks like it was only his endurance that was at such a high level," she continued, having noted that she had poured a considerable amount of her Ki into that hit. Combined with the fact that she hadn't exactly held back with her other few hits proved to her that if the other soldiers were anything like this one, then they could take a bit of a beating.

"Thanks for the assist," Miu suddenly said from where she was at on the sidelines. She really did appreciate the help from Maya and it also allowed her to see how strong the girl could be. From what she has seen, just based off the amount of Ki Maya had used just now, she was easily in the expert class. The fact that she hadn't gone all out either amazed Miu, glad that Maya was on her's and the other's side.

Maya flashed Miu a smile. "No problem." Then she grew serious once more. "But I don't think we can relax just yet. There's definitely more soldiers out there. If we want to save your class, we better move," she siad.

Miu's grateful smile dropped and her expression was then replaced with one of determination. Without a single word spoken between the two girls, both of them took off, Miu in the lead so that she can lead Maya to their fellow classmates.

As this occurred, Masataka was fighting Boris, the former keeping the latter on his toes. Boris was getting frustrated and somewhat nervous; no matter what he threw at Masataka, most of his attacks wouldn't land. Masataka in turn had landed a few blows himself, but not strong enough to knock Boris out. However, his very calm disposition unnerved Boris as it seemed to hint that Masataka was just waiting for something.

Letting out a bit of a battle cry, Boris launched at punch at Masataka. The older teen smacked the incoming fist aside, but Boris then used this failed attack to get in close and go for a grab on Masataka's right arm using his right leg by getting Masataka's arm stuck in between the back of his knee and lower leg as he closed it. He then leapt slightly into the air and forced himself down, the suddenness of this causing Masataka to fall as well. Both of them had taken their battle from the stream to the dry land close by, so if Masataka fell now, he'd be eating dirt. But Boris had something else in mind. As Masataka fell forward, Boris brought up his free leg in an attempt to knee the teen right in the face. "Serp I Molot!" Boris cried out as he proceeded with the attack.

But right when his knee was about to strike Masataka, the teen merely brought up his other hand to catch the knee. "What!" Boris exclaimed. Then in an impressive show of strength, Masataka quickly forced himself to stand up, raising his right arm high, Boris still grasping onto it. Then with a yell, he slammed Boris into the ground with great force, getting a brief cry of pain out of the soldier teen before lifting him up again and throwing him off.

Boris righted himself in midair before he could land, but even then when he made contact with the ground, he nearly lost his balance, having not expected Masataka to have such strength. "He's even stronger than Shirahama!" he thought, comparing Masataka's physical might to Kenichi's.

Masataka once more assumed his usual stance while Boris did the same, the latter very wary now as he knew now that if Masataka wanted, he could channel that surprising strength into a powerful attack. After the failed attempt on the senator, the soldiers that Kenichi had taken down at the time had somehow managed to witness the very brief scuffle between his current opponent and Kenichi. "If he uses that technique… I may not succeed if it lands…" he thought, remembering what the soldiers have told him about what they saw.

"Why?" Masataka finally said. This got Boris' attention as well as Kenichi, who was watching the fight with a very impressed look on his face from the other side of the stream. "Why are you attempting to kill the students and teachers?"

"Orders," Boris answered, tensing slightly as Masataka's already piercing eyes narrowed.

"You're going to commit mass murder because you were ordered to?" Mastaka growled out, truly angry.

"Orders are absolute!" Boris yelled in response before suddenly resuming his attack. He charged at the Juken Club member, but almost immediately he noticed a difference in the teen as suddenly he found his attempted flurry of punches and grapples dodged with ease. Masataka's movements were faster now, definitely above disciple class and were much smoother now, as though he had been holding back before. Boris was right, but didn't know for certain this fact just yet.

Boris roared in indignation, pressing on with his assault in the hopes that one of his attacks would at least graze Masataka and slow him enough for him to get him in a deadly stranglehold, but Masataka just kept on dodging, sometimes smacking aside some punches with much more force than before, evident by that Boris' hands were starting to hurt a bit.

He backed off just a bit, trying to keep calm before launching yet another attack, but that was the chance Masataka had been waiting for. As soon as Boris' attacks stopped, he rushed forward, taking the YOMI member completely by surprise. Boris sensed the incoming attack and tried to bring up his arms to block, but Masataka proved his superior speed once more and struck his opponent hard in the face with a strong palm thrust.

"Guh!" was all Boris could get out before he stumbled back. Masataka didn't give him a chance to recover and unleashed a solid punch to Boris' stomach. Boris doubled over from the hit, a bit of spit and blood getting knocked out of his mouth as a result. This hit was then followed by a kick to the side and knee to the face. The quick, but powerful combo was enough to knock Boris several feet back, Masataka having not put too much power into his hits lest he'd risk Boris having a chance to recover and retaliate if the distance between them was too wide.

"W-Wow," Kenichi muttered from where he was at. "He's really strong!" He had known that Masataka was a powerful guy, but he never was expecting Boris to suddenly start getting so overwhelmed right now as Masataka chased after Boris and feinted an attack, getting Boris to try and punch him, only for Masataka to then counter said hit with one of his own, this time using a technique of his.

"Shin'irikugō Taihōtenshi Tsūhaiken!" Masataka yelled out as he delivered a single strike at Boris, hitting him right in the gut. He pushed Ki through his hand right out through Boris, using the YOMI member's skin and muscle as a medium for the Ki as it then struck a few of Boris' organs.

Boris coughed up blood. "W-What!" he muttered as he felt pain unlike anything he has felt before. He collapsed to the ground, hands over his stomach.

"I hit some of your organs with a Ki attack. I didn't put that much into my strike, so it isn't fatal or anything, but I think fighting isn't really your best bet anymore," Masataka said as he stared down at Boris with a cold glare.

Kenichi couldn't help but shiver a bit from the sidelines. "So glad he didn't do that to me when we fought," he thought, silently thanking whatever deity that was looking out for him.

Meanwhile, Tanimoto was currently busy fighting off the three soldiers from before. The soldier that he had originally knocked down the cliff was trying to attack him, but alas that was something proving to be very hard to do, Tanimoto swiftly dodging every attempt. The other two soldiers were waiting for an opening in order to join in on the attack, but so far no such opportunity was presenting itself, something that they found rather worrying; Tanimoto was proving to be more than they can handle so far. "S-Shit!" the soldier roared right after yet another failed attack.

"I can't believe this guy isn't on our list!" the female soldier said. They all have been given a list of people to take out first due to their power and skill, but Tanimoto's name wasn't on it. Even if he was, she and her fellow two soldiers doubted that it would have made much of a difference.

Tanimoto landed a fierce palm attack on the soldier's chest. "Kyousa!" he cried out as he executed the attack, pushing his palm forward, feeling the sternum of the soldier crack just a bit. The soldier staggered back and collapsed to the ground, his consciousness fading.

This got a reaction out of the other two. "You bastard!" the female soldier yelled at Tanimoto as she then rushed the blond teen and started throwing several punches and kicks. Tanimoto dodged all the strikes with practiced ease before he started having to deflect the female soldier's hands as she started to go for strikes with her knife.

Preoccupied with her, the last remaining soldier approached Tanimoto from behind, hoping to go for a killing blow then and there. However, he underestimated Tanimoto's senses and reactions for as soon as he got within a few feet of the blonde, said blonde suddenly shoved back the female soldier and spun around to confront the now startled male one.

"Chouchuukikoku Uryuubanda!" Tanimoto yelled as he then began to perfrom a long combo. It started with a straight left punch to the soldier's gut and then he pulled back his left hand to grab hold of the soldier's arm as he then delivered an upwards strike with his right fist into the soldier's chest. The strike lifted the soldier up off the ground a bit and before he could land, Tanimoto let go of the soldier's arm and then hit him hard in the chin with a left palm strike before suddenly raising his right arm high into the air and bringing it down hard on the soldier, hitting him with such force that he slammed into the ground hard enough to crack the sturdy material a bit.

The female soldier looked on in shock and fear, her two comrades now down for the count. Tanimoto then stood up and turned to face her. "No matter who my enemy is, I always go all out. Especially when people are trying to kill me," he said calmly, which only served to make her even more afraid. "Don't think being a girl is going to make a difference for you."

The female soldier began to raise her knife as Tanimoto proceeded to run right at her. As Tanimoto neared, she swung her knife, but her opponent easily sidestepped it and struck her hard in the side with an elbow. "Geki Tou Chou Chuu!" he yelled.

The female soldier coughed up some blood as she screamed in pain, the elbow having struck a vital organ a bit. She was put out of her misery though when Tanimoto spun around to get behind her and deliver a quick chop to the back of her neck, knocking her out. "Tch. I don't know why these guys are here, but I don't like it. I sure hope that there aren't that many though."

As Tanimoto had finished up, Kyoko was still trying to find Boris to see how he was holding up with the rest of the class. She was higher up on the mountain than most other students due to her having run as fast as she could. Now she was dead tired and felt like she could collapse any minute now. "I…. I… I should… have listened…. To him," she said in between breaths, thinking back to how the superintendent told her not to run off. Now she was paying for it as her legs now started to wobble considerably, just waiting for a moment to give out on her.

Then she heard a sound, a rustling of bushes or something along those lines. Pausing to look to her right, which is where the sound was coming from, she was very startled to suddenly see Miu and Maya, the latter being someone she didn't clearly, suddenly jump up from wherever they were at onto the ledge of the cliff where she was at.

"Wah, Furinji-san?" she cried out. But Miu and Maya didn't seem to hear her and continued running forward before jumping high once more onto another nearby cliff before heading up. Kyoko watched all this with a stupified expression on her face. "Wah, I can't keep up with them," she muttered, depressed. Youngsters these days were in good shape apparently.

But then she started trying to walk again, but her fatigue chose that moment to hit her, and it hit her hard as she staggered to her right. Which is where the cliff was at. "Uh oh," she said a little dumbly as she then fell off.

She screamed, arms flailing about, but thankfully she was able to grab hold of a branch sticking out of the cliff. "So close…" That was when she heard footsteps approaching and fast. "Wah, maybe they can help me!" she thought.

But as the footsteps approached, she could hear voices, several of them and much deeper than any student she knew. Not only that, but they weren't speaking in japanese either. "Is that… Russian?" she though, having taken some foreign language classes back in school. She then was about to try and shout out for help in Russian, but that was when the branch she was holding onto snapped. She cried out in surprise as she rolled down the side of the cliff and into the river below.

"Did anyone hear that?" a Russian soldier said. This one and the other several soldiers with him stood at the top of the cliff that Kyoko had fallen from.

"Sounded like someone fell into the river," an older, well-built soldier with a white mustache commented. "It could be one of the students or teachers. We better go check it out and eliminate that person now."

As they talked, Kyoko floated, nearly unconscious in the stream due to her fall. It was only by sheer luck that she had fallen near Masataka, Kenichi, and Boris. "Was that a scream?" Kenichi asked aloud, he and the other two having heard it.

Masataka looked away from Boris, the latter still on his knees, though he was trying to find the strength to get back up. Masataka and Kenichi took several steps towards the stream to get a good look at who it was and saw Kyoko.

Kenichi and Masataka froze upon seeing her. "Ono-sensei?" Kenichi muttered.

At the mention of her name, Boris froze himself, craning his head to look for himself. He stiffened at the sight of her form. He and the other two teens thought her dead.

Then, without warning, Kenichi punched the ground, doing so with such surprising power in the strike that it made a small crater. "Is this what you wanted, Boris!" he yelled at said teen before suddenly charging at him. Masataka was so taken aback by Kenichi's reaction that he was unable to move in time to try and stop him.

Kenichi charged at Boris, who was now quickly getting up, a result of a surge of adrenaline. He punched Boris hard across the face, nearly knocking him out due to the damage he already took from Masataka. But Boris persevered and slugged Kenichi as well, knocking him back into the stream and then went after him.

The two were quick to get into a deadlock as they both began to try and physically overpower the other. Their struggle caused splashes to go towards Masataka and Kyoko, the former grabbing the latter by the shoulders as he was about to check for a pulse. But the water got in his eyes, taking him aback momentarily. Water also got into Kyoko's mouth and instantaneously, she began to start coughing as she woke up.

Masataka, rubbing his eyes, stared in surprise at the sudden revival. "S-She's alive!" he said.

Those two words brought Kenichi's and Boris' struggle to a sudden halt. "What?" they both exclaimed.

Kyoko shook her head as she started to look around, trying to get a grasp on her bearings. Upon seeing Kenichi and Boris, she smiled. "Hey, Hama-kun," she called out, using her own little pet name for Kenchi, "Boris-kun, I've come to see if you were getting along with everyone."

"In-Instructor! This is course A, it's not my course!" Boris replied, unable to believe what was going on here right now.

That had Kyoko start flailing her arms about. "Eh? But I somehow got here. And then I fell from that high cliff too, it was terrible," she said.

Masataka simply stood back and watched, his right eyebrow twitching. "W-What the hell…?" he wondered, completely blindsided by this sudden turn of events.

"What a troublesome instructor," Boris muttered, though Kenichi heard.

Kenichi smirked a bit, kind of agreeing with him. But the smile then disappeared as Boris then let out a war cry and tried to overpower him once more, using the opportunity to gain an advantage. Kenichi let out a cry of his own, having tried the exact same thing at the same time.

"Hey, guys cut it out already!" Masataka said. After seeing that Kyoko was okay, he saw no reason for them to fight anymore.

"Yeah, stop playing around and help me!" Kyoko whined childishly, "my back hurts!" But then she stopped for one second to look at Masataka, noticing him for the first time now. "Uhmm, who are you?" she asked, curious as to who he was and why he was here.

Masataka adopted a sheepish expression. "Err…"

However, before he could explain, a voice called out, though not to him or the others. "We found her!" a voice yelled out in Russian.

Kenichi and Boris paused in their fighting to see who it was, along with Kyoko and Masataka. "Oh, it's those guys from earlier," she commented, recognizing one of the voices.

The eldest of the Russian soldiers looked at Boris with a hint of disdain. "What's this, Boris Isanov? You still haven't finished him?" he asked in Russian. Flanking him were two other soldiers, drawing out their knifes. However, due to their size, it would be very easy for them to be mistaken for machetes, a fact that had Kyoko slightly backing up a bit while Masataka tensed slightly.

Boris growled slightly. The men were older soldiers, having been in the military for years if not decades. It was clear that their respect for him was minimal. "We're supposed to contact the base immediately if we pass the operation time limit," he said to them in his native tongue, now that he was able to think things through a bit. His fight with Masataka and current situation with Kenichi had kept him from remembering this earlier.

The eldest soldier sneered. "There is no need for that."

"Orders are absolute!" Boris responded. He broke free of Kenichi's grasp right after that and put a hand up to switch on his communicator. "Master, this is Boris, this is Boris."

However, his transmission wasn't received; though Boris nor anyone else there don't know it yet, Alexander Gaider was currently fighting a fierce battle against Akisame in Russia, the latter having gone there on his own to take the Yami member into custody.

This lack of reply caused Boris to go into a slight panic. "I can't contact the base! This is an emergency situation! Stop the operation temporarily! Inform all units!" he commanded of the soldiers.

The soldiers, however, didn't budge from where they were standing. Kyoko just looked back and forth between Boris and them, unsure of what was being said as they were still speaking in Russian. Kenichi and Masataka, on the other hand, could sense the tension, and so took their usual fighting stance, just in case of a sudden attack from them.

The oldest of the soldiers sighed. "You brat…" he muttered before glaring at Boris and pointing his knife at him, "I, who is nicknamed 'Russia's Crimson Knife,' lieutenant Gergins… no way will I listen obey some pet that has Platoon Leader position because of colonel's influence!" he said indignantly.

"I DON'T FUCKING CARE!" Boris roared as loud as he could, startling Kenichi and Masataka, "ORDERS ARE ABSOLUTE!"

Kenichi, sensing that something was about to happen, took this chance to speak. "What is it Boris? Your subordinates won't listen to you?" he asked, coming to this conclusion based off the tone of voice they had been using.

Boris looked at the Ryozanpaku disciple briefly. "Yeah, even though I am the platoon leader at the moment, they won't listen!"

Masataka caught on to what Kenichi appeared to be saying. "So isn't that pretty bad?" he asked as he prepared to move.

"Indeed! This is clearly treachery!" Boris shot back.

At that moment, the old soldier, named Gergins, moved towards Kyoko, knife at the ready. "I don't care. Continue the operation. I'm taking command from now on!" he said to his troop as he started to swing his knife at the school teacher, who merely looked surprised at this.

However, the soldiers proceeded no further for in unison, Kenichi, Boris, and Masataka charged at the soldiers. In the same second, Kenichi punched one soldier right across the jaw as Masataka delivered a strong elbow strike to the side of another soldier's face. As for Boris, he rushed the Gergins and kneed him in the chin, knocking him away from Kyoko.

Gergins grunted from the attack and rubbed his chin. "Damn you kid, have you lost your mind?" he growled out.

Boris, Kenichi, and Masataka got back to back as they now found themselves standing in the middle of all three soldiers. "Shut up! You're the ones who lost your mind! Ignoring orders will be severely punished!" he retorted angrily.

"Looks like we'll be helping you out. For now," Masataka said, glaring at the soldier he had struck.

As they prepared to fight the soldiers, Shinichiro was currently with Apachai and Kensei, overlooking the huge forest from atop a very high cliff. The two Ryozanpaku masters had arrived not long ago in order to survey the place and see if their assistance would be required. Both were glad to see that it was not the case.

"Wow, you guys sure aren't bad," Kensei said as he was looking at the different fights going on via binoculars that Shinichiro had handed him earlier. Currently, he was observing Bob, Kagesada, and Aya scattered throughout the forest, taking down small groups of soldiers that were going after students and teachers. Though Bob and Kaegesada were having a bit of a hard time with the soldiers due to being outnumbered, that was thankfully offset by some assistance from Maya and Miu as the two girls were traveling around the forest to lend a hand whenever it was required. Siegfried had also shown up to protect Nijima as well, giving the Shinpaku Alliance members much needed protection against the soldiers that had shown up.

"Apa," was all Apachai said about this; he was currently too busy eating a bento prepared by Shigure to really focus on what Kensei and Shinichiro were looking at.

"Thanks. Everyone went through the wringer to toughen up," Shinichiro said as he also oversaw the fights. "However…" He then directed his binoculars towards the spot where Souichiro, Rachel, and Ethan were still fighting soldiers, looking just in time to see Rachel jump at two soldiers and clothesline them while her brother delivered a high kick to another nearby. Souichiro was going up against a large group of soldiers himself, still not really using red feather abilities as his physical prowess alone proved to be enough to overwhelm them, evident by when he grabbed one soldier by the front of his jacket and tossed him dozen of yards away from him with ease.

Kensei had directed his gaze to this sight as well. "Wow. So that is where all of the soldiers had went," he commented. He had also decided to come to see for himself Souichiro in action. So far, he had to say that he was impressed. While Souichiro so far had yet to demonstrate fighting skill on par with a master, he was definitely more skilled than most disciples he's seen and his physical ability was easily up there with guys like Apachai and Sakaki from what he is seeing so far.

"Damn, it seems like he got even stronger," Shinichiro muttered, also taking note of how much better Souichiro was fighting. He knew that due to Souichiro's overwhelming power, all reinforcements for the soldiers were heading straight to him to try and take down, but it didn't seem to be making much of a difference.

The two of them then fell silent, the only noise now being Apachai still eating Shigure's bento at rapid speed, as she had made enough for both him and Kensei. Kensei didn't seem to notice his food being eaten.

He and Shinichiro watched as one soldier tried to stab Souichiro in the heart, an attack that Souichiro actually didn't bother to dodge or block. The reason behind this was soon revealed as the knife promptly broke against his skin, his body being much more durable than a normal person's. The soldier looked at his broken knife in shock before Souichiro backhanded him hard across the face. Both watchers winced as they heard the crack from way up there.

They continued to watch as yet another soldier charged at the true warrior, but only to do an attack that clearly none had been expecting: a fierce low kick to the groin. The soldier's foot made contact with said area and a crack could be heard. The other soldiers gained smirks, thinking that it would hurt Souichiro enough for them to capitalize on the attack. Even Kensei and Shinichiro thought so until the soldier let out a cry of pain and hopped back on one foot, revealing to all that the leg he had used to kick Souichiro with was bleeding. The crack they had heard came from him, who had broken a bone or two kicking Souichiro there, thereby informing everyone watching that his durability also extended to that area too as Souichiro had remained seemingly unaffected by the hit.

Then while the soldier was busy trying to nurse his leg and back off, Souichiro reared back his leg and then let loose a kick to that soldier's groin. The resulting hit was so painful and emitted a cracking sound so loud that all of the male soldiers, Kensei, and Shinichiro closed their legs instinctively, feeling nothing pure sympathy for the soldier. Even Ethan nearby paused for a brief second to wince as did any other male within hearing shot of the extremely loud crack. The very unlucky soldier didn't even scream though his facial expression clearly said he really wanted to, but was in too much pain to do so even as he went rocketing through the air at bullet speed, crossing several dozen meters before landing.

"W-What power…" Kensei and Shinichiro muttered at the same time. They were in no hurry to try taking Souichiro down.

Speaking of said teen, Souichiro was beginning to feel tired. Not physically tired, but mentally as he was starting to get really bored of taking on these soldiers, though he did have to give them credit for their persistence. After his latest and most unfortunate opponent just now, the other soldiers were now warily hanging back, even the female ones. After all, a hit to the groin is painful regardless of gender.

He glanced at a few soldiers to his right and noted that they were beginning to lose their nerve and fast, evident by how they started to back away. "Oh no you don't," Souichiro muttered.

Apparently, they seemed to hear or at least understand that he was going to go for them next and that was when they decided to turn tail and run. They were quite fast, covering a distance that would have impressed most disciple level martial artists. However, it meant nothing to Souichiro.

The true warrior ran right after him and tackled all three of them hard, knocking them all forward. However, they were all quite close by a slope and the tackle was all it took to make them all go right down it. "Ah shit," Souichiro muttered.

They started to roll down said slope, the soldier too hurt from Souichiro's tackle to try and brace themselves, leaving them exposed to its rough surface as well as smashing through any small objects lodged in the earth. Souichiro for his part did right himself, but he kept skidding down the slope, for despite its roughness, it was still smooth just enough for his own very oppressive Ki to work against him and force him down the slope. He did attempt to grab hold of a tree branch with his hair strands, willing them to life, but the tree branch proved to be weak and it easily snapped right off.

"Fu-," he began as he and the soldiers fell into the stream below.

One of the soldiers had the misfortune of hitting solid ground, his consciousness immediately fading as his body took severe damage from the fall. The other soldier proved to be even more unlucky, landing face first into the stream. In addition to the big smack that the surface of the water gave him to his entire front side, Souichiro ended up landing right on top of him, feet first, forcing the soldier under and right into the bottom of the stream as it caused an enormous splash, Souichiro's Ki-powered weight and the momentum gained by his fall adding to it. The soldier lost all breath underwater from this and passed out as some of the bones in his back broke from Souichiro's weight.

Souichiro winced a bit; he had actually felt just a bit bad about that one. He immediately stepped off of the now incapacitated soldier and grabbed him by the back of his shirt with one hand and flung him off to the shoreline of the stream, right next to the other soldier. "Well, that wasn't exactly as I planned," Souichiro muttered as he began to start turning to leave and try and figure a way back up.

"N-Nagi?" Souichiro froze, immediately recognizing that voice. Turning slowly around, he saw the last person he expected to see here: Masataka. With him were Boris and Kenichi in the midst of battling three older soldiers. Though they have been fighting for a while, evident by the bruises the soldiers had, they all had froze at the sight of Souichiro showing up. "What you are doing here?"

Souichiro turned all the way around to face them, noticing Kyoko off to the side of the whole thing, looking at him rather happily. "Hey there, Souichiro-san! I hope you're getting along well with the others!" she said to him despite the clearly tense atmosphere.

Souichiro's right eyebrow twitched; he definitely hadn't seen this little reunion coming.

* * *

Whew, that took a while. Sorry once again for the somewhat late update, but I also had to begin studying for a few tests coming up soon. That and I have been a bit preoccupied with Resident Evil 6. Awesome game by the way, though some parts of the game are quite frustrating, namely the bosses and how much damn ammo they make me use against them. But now I'm just getting off track.

Anyways, I will try to update once again relatively soon, but I can't make any promises just yet. But in the end, I will update at the very least a few more times before the end of the year!

Thanks for reading and be sure to drop a review!


	19. Chapter 19

Yo there everyone! Hope your lives are going well and all. Thanks to everyone for reviewing my fic so far, especially **Tensa Zangetsu 17 **and **RoyalTwinFangs**!

On another note, sorry (seems like I say this every time) for a somewhat late update; had an essay for a class to work on and while it was a short one, it wasn't exactly easy either. And not to mention, finals are near too so I have to prepare for those as well. Ah man, I can't believe the semester is ending already.

Chapter 19

Souichiro wasn't liking this one bit. All he had wanted was just beat the soldiers and catch up with Makoto and the others, but now here he found himself reunited with the one he regarded as senpai. And as if that wasn't bad enough, Kenichi was with him. Granted, he knew that Kenichi didn't seem to be too scared of him now compared to before, but he considering that he did nearly kill him before didn't exactly make this anymore comfortable.

Then he glanced over to Boris. Out of the three teens, Boris was the only one that Souichiro could honestly say right now that he didn't have much of a problem with; Boris didn't have any sort of crazy encounter with him, unlike the other two.

Masataka and Kenichi too were a bit unsettled by this seemingly out of nowhere meeting with the true warrior, mainly in Masataka's case. It is the first time in more than several months since he has seen Souichiro and he honestly couldn't discern Souichiro's current mental state, which did slightly unnerve him as Souichiro's state of mind could either make this encounter go relatively well or go straight to disaster. It didn't help that Souichiro's Ki felt stronger than the last time he had ever met him either. Kenichi, for his part, was simply stunned by Souichiro. It was the first time that he had been this close to Souichiro, at least during a fight anyway. With what he knew of Souichiro, he was worried that perhaps this situation could have gotten a bit worse if Sohaku suddenly influences him or something.

Boris, for his part, wasn't exactly relieved to see his fellow YOMI comrade, but at the same time, he felt that Souichiro could help him and Masataka and Kenichi dispose of the soldiers; they were proving to be considerably more resilient than he had expected, having withstood a good handful of strong blows from them thus far.

"Guh! You little fucker!" one of the soldier roared as he staggered back, having just been hit prior to Souichiro's appearance. He and the other two soldiers were seemingly ignoring Souichiro, an action that was either a sign of considerable bravery or suicidal behavior.

His words had the effect of snapping everyone out of their thoughts and face the soldiers that still stood. One of them, the second oldest after Gergins, snarled at them all. "Don't think you can win this!" he yelled at them.

Souichiro's eye slightly twitched, both in annoyance and slight cringe as the man's yell was just a bit too much for his ears. Without so much as a second thought, the true warrior raised one hand, summoning water from the stream he was in and into his palm before firing it like a big blast right at the soldier's face, hitting him dead center.

Boris, who was closest to the soldier just struck, had to roll out of the way due to the size of the water blast and also because of how big the 'blast' radius was after it struck the soldier, splashing the water all over the place. The soldier's face was damaged badly from the hit, red and bruised all over due to the sheer force and he staggered back several steps before falling unconscious.

Everyone froze and had their mouths hanging open in shock at the suddenness of this save for Masataka who was relatively used to Souichiro's many abilities, having been on the receiving end of several of them during their last fight.

The other soldiers stared at Souichiro stupefied before anger overcame them both. "Damn you!" Gergins yelled at the true warrior Susano and leapt right at him, hands at the ready to grab Souichiro's throat and most likely attempt to break it. The other soldier followed his example, attempting to flank Souichiro from his right.

Everyone watched in anticipation of what would happen next. The only one not totally enthralled by this was Kyoko who simply stared dumbly as this was all moving at a speed her eyes couldn't comprehend. "Wha! What's going on? That guy is suddenly on the ground!" she remarked, flailing her arms around as, to her eyes, it seemed as if the first soldier just ended up on the ground in an instant.

The others paid her no mind as the two soldiered moved in. Souichiro simply stayed put, casually waiting for the soldiers. Once they were close enough, Souichiro then opened his mouth. "Punch your buddy," he said as he promptly activated his Dragon's Roar ability. He said this to Gergins, who was closest to him.

Masataka's eyes widened, having recognized the marking on Souichiro's tongue as he opened his mouth wide enough for everyone to see. Boris and Kenichi, having no clue as to what the mark meant, could only gape as suddenly, Gergins spun and punched the other soldier right across the jaw. A crunch could be heard as the lower part of it dislocated due to the angle he was at and the soldier went flying back from the punch.

"W-W-What!" Gergins exclaimed at his sudden, uncontrolled action, staring as his fellow soldier slammed headfirst into a nearby boulder, an audible crack ringing out as the man's skull was damaged. The soldier passed out and hit the ground, blood beginning to slowly leak out of the back of his head, where a small jagged wound could now be seen. It wasn't fatal, but it certainly was a serious injury.

Gergins stared, shock etched into his facial features as he struggled to figure out what just happened. One second, he was charging at Souichiro and the next second, he was swinging at his own soldiers without any intention to ever do such a thing.

He turned and faced Souichiro, now wary of the teen as he knew that he had a hand in this. "What the hell do you do to me?" he growled out.

However, he said this in Russian, which Souichiro didn't understand. The true warrior simply stared at him, his gaze making the battle-hardened soldier flinch just a bit under his stare. "Answer me," he said. Souichiro just carried on with his gaze before he suddenly turned around and began to walk away. This naturally angered the large soldier. "Don't turn your-," Gergins began.

However, this was a ruse on Souichiro's part. As soon as Gergins began to yell, he had let his guard down in anger as he had started to move towards Souichiro. This was something Souichiro took advantage of, and with terrifying speed, he spun around and kicked the large man with devastating power right in his chin. Gergin's jaw slammed shut from the hit, cutting the man off midway through his sentence and he hardly had a chance to even let out any sort of sound before he went skidding back across the ground and through a tree, slamming right through it with enough force that it sounded as if a truck had just came crashing through a stone wall.

Everyone gaped at the sight. Masataka gulped, nervous now as Souichiro slowly turned his gaze back to them. "Call off the other soldiers," he growled out at Boris as he remembered the other soldiers going around attacking the others.

Boris flinched ever so slightly before activating the communicator he had to make contact with the other soldiers prowling around the mountain. He practically shouted for everyone to stand down, but he received no replies. "Why do they not answer?" He questioned aloud.

"The others must have already taken them down," Masataka commented as he remembered that the Juken Club would be lending a hand in dealing with the soldiers.

Boris whirled around to face him. "What!"

"I guess your soldiers are out of commission; your operation failed," Masataka said, being very blunt in doing so.

Boris looked surprised for a moment before all of them, including Kyoko suddenly jumped as Souichiro fell to his knees, crying out in pain as he held his head. "Nagi!" Masataka yelled.

"Ah, Souichiro-san!" Kyoko cried out in worry.

Said teen was currently like this due to one thing. Or rather one person: Sohaku. As soon as he looked at Masataka just now, he suddenly felt a terrible pressure flood his mind as Sohaku tried to take over. His intent was obvious: to kill Masataka. Before, when he had nearly killed Kenichi, Souichiro's mind was very unstable due to Aya being close at the time and Sohaku practically compelling him to consume her Dragon's Eye. At that time, he had overlooked Masataka, the one who, apparently in Sohaku's mind, had been causing him the most trouble as he proved in his battle against Souichiro. However, now that there were no such distractions around, Masataka's presence was affecting Souichiro. Badly.

Souchiro's hair sprung to life, strands combining together to form the blade-like quality they had before and started to flail about, slicing up the ground around him with terrifying speed and ferocity. Souichiro's Ki fluctuated wildly as the teen tried to fight back against Sohaku's powerful influence. The stream also suffered from Souichiro's Ki as the water around him would be pushed away, exposing the bottom of the stream only for that to start caving in as his Ki became larger in quantity and much denser.

The others took a fearful step back. Even Kyoko, who before had seemed to be oblivious to his Ki, seemed cowed by it now. "S-Souichiro-san?" she called out.

"Nagi…" Masataka muttered as he attempted to take a step towards him, only to have to jump back when a strand of hair whipped in his direction.

"Stay. Back," Souichiro said slowly and in an almost snarl due to his current pain. He forced himself to his feet, though his legs began to wobble a bit. "Damn it," he muttered as he nearly collapsed to one knee. Sohaku was still trying to overcome his mind and kill Masataka right then and there, but Souichiro was slowly beginning to gain some ground and push his influence back.

His Ki continued to grow denser and it soon became too much for Kyoko, who then passed out. Masataka took up his fighting stance as he began to grow very wary now. Boris and Kenichi merely looked confused and rather scared, Kenichi more so than Boris in the case of the latter.

Masataka shifted his footing, eyeing Souichiro's still flailing hair strands with worry. "Nagi?" he called out.

Souichiro seemed to flinch at the sound of his voice before letting out a sigh that was filled with equals parts frustration and pain. "You shouldn't have come here senpai," he said.

Masataka looked a little taken aback. He nearly dropped his stance. "What are you talking about? You were the one who pretty much asked me to defeat you."

Souichiro cracked his neck, averting Masataka's gaze. "That was then. Right now though, things have changed, senpai."

Masataka now dropped his stance, but he still remained on guard just in case, keeping the distance between him and Souichiro. "Nagi, you know that is bullshit."

Souichiro clutched his head. "I can feel him." Masataka knew instantly that he was referring to Sohaku. "He's still there in the back of my mind, getting stronger and stronger. I can keep him back for now, senpai, but not for much longer. I don't know just what you guys did the last time to nearly take him out, but it isn't going to work this time around."

Masataka was about to speak up, but only for Souichiro to start turning away from him and started to walk away. "Just leave senpai. If I stay here any longer, that fucker is gonna take over."

Souichiro kept on walking, fighting off the mental pain, but stopped when Masataka spoke again. "Say whatever you want, but you know that we don't give up that easily," Masataka said to him, "we're going to kill him. One way or the other."

He, Boris and Kenichi stared at Souichiro, who seemed to be at a loss for words. Kenichi couldn't help but feel rather touched at how determined Masataka and by extension the Juken Club were at taking down Sohaku and freeing Souichiro from his control. "Masataka-san…" Kenichi thought with a smile, glad to have said teen as a friend now.

"Do whatever the hell you want," Souichiro finally responded before jumping high into the air and back onto a nearby ledge before walking off.

This now left the three teens alone. They all simply stared at the spot Souichiro had just been in before Masataka and Kenichi shifted their gaze to Boris.

"Well?" Masataka questioned, "what now?" he asked, wondering now if Boris would try to fight them again.

Boris was about to speak, but then his communicator seemed to go off, signifying that he was receiving a transmission. "Yes! This is Boris!" he answered, snapping to attention.

He was very shocked to hear his master, Alexander Gaider, on the other end of the line. "The result. How is it?" Alexander questioned.

Boris bowed his head in shame. "I'm sorry. I have failed you master. The operation was a failure," he replied as he recalled what Masataka said about the soldiers.

"I see." The rather quick response took Boris aback along with Kenichi and Masataka who were straining their ears to listen in. "Boris Ivanov, from today on, cancel any connection to YOMI. We are no longer master and disciple! Also, don't look for me! This is my last order," Alexander said.

That definitely them all by surprise. "M-Master!" Boris cried out, but the call disconnected. Boris held his hand pressed against the communicator for a moment before letting his hand fall.

"What do you plan to do now, Boris?" Kenichi questioned. He and Boris may have been enemies not long ago, but for the Russian soldier to be disowned by his master did make him feel bad for the guy.

Boris sighed. "I will find my master! Even if I have to look every where on the planet!" he yelled with much gusto.

His spirit took Masataka and Kenichi aback. "Doesn't that go against the order?" Masataka asked with a raised eyebrow.

Boris didn't hesitate in his reply. "The order of disallowing me to look for him was given only after he fired me! It doesn't count!"

Masataka and Kenichi nearly facefaulted at that. "He's getting better at finding loopholes in these orders…" Kenichi muttered, Masataka nodding in agreement.

Boris then turned and faced the two. "It is your victory. I'll do as you please for now," he said.

Masataka sighed. "Well for now, how about you and Kenichi-san get back to your class? They must already be at the summit and very worried for you guys right now."

Kenichi nodded, now looking worried. "That's right! I still have to see if the others are alright too!"

Boris nodded as well. "Very well. It would be strange if I didn't stay for the duration of the camp."

Kenichi then gazed at Boris. "And you won't be causing anymore trouble for the rest of the camp trip?" he asked.

Boris nodded his head in agreement before he went off, apparently going to change his clothes as he was still dressed in his combat gear. "As the loser of this fight, I will obey that order!" He paused. "And the order the instructor gave me to enjoy the beach camp is still in effect."

Kenichi blinked, surprised by that statement before smiling. However, Masataka snapped him out of that good mood. "Well, we can't exactly forget about her either now that you mention her," he said sheepishly as he pointed to Kyoko, who was snoring peacefully on the ground.

"Ah…" Kenichi and Boris said in unison.

Meanwhile, Shinichiro was still with Kensei and Apachai. All of them were glad to see that the soldiers have all been dealt with. "Hmm, while it is a bit of a shame we didn't have to get involved, it is a good thing that things are calming down," Kensei commented, observing the soldiers defeated by both Rachel and Ethan as the two siblings were moving quickly throughout the forest to catch up with the class.

Shinichiro nodded in agreement. "Still, it is a bit unsettling at just how many soldiers there were. Yami's resources are not to be underestimated with. I think their resources could even rival F's."

Kensei sighed. "Indeed. We can't afford to let our guard down even now. There are still the other members of the One Shadow Nine Fists to look out for."

"Apa," Apachai said, full from Shigure's bentos. This sort of offset the mood of the situation, but both Shinichiro and Kensei ignored it.

Shinichiro used his binoculars to see Souichiro meet up with Makoto and her group. Makoto had a look of concern on her face when she saw Souichiro. "Huh. He seems to get along pretty well with the students here," Shinichiro said, rather surprised by that. He thought Souichiro's Ki would be keeping people away. Still, it was a bit of a good thing to see.

Kensei, however, was looking at something else: Kenichi, who was carrying Kyoko on his back, was running alongside Boris to catch up with the class, who were all at the summit now. "Hmm, looks like he made it," he said with a smile. He took note of Masataka running towards their position though, the teen having said his farewell to Kenichi for the moment to meet up with Shinichiro and the two masters. From all over the forest, the other members of the Juken Club could be seen doing the same.

They politely waited for some of them to arrive. Masataka was actually the first to get there, the stream having been surprisingly close by. Maya and Aya, being faster than Bob and Kagesada, showed up next, looking no worse for wear; they had dealt with the soldiers rather easily. However, several minutes later, when Bob and Kagesada finally showed up, it was clear that they had a rough time.

Bob was wearing black fatigue pants and a dark green shirt, with some tears on it. He was sweating a bit, both from fighting and from running all over the place. Several scratches and small gashes could also been seen on his arms along with a bruise or two. Kagesada, dressed in roughly the same kind of clothes, only with a grey jacket over his shirt, sported similar wounds, though he was holding his stomach in a bit of pain, one of the soldiers having landed a powerful blow there.

"You guys alright?" Maya asked.

"Just fine," Bob grumbled out. "Shit, looks like we had to deal with more of those fuckers than you did."

"Well, at least you made it out okay," Kensei remarked, "There were quite a lot of them and they certainly had no qualms about killing you." A grim expression was now on his face as he said this.

This had the effect of making the just arrived Juken Club look rather serious themselves now. "Right. Now if Akisame-san took down Alexander Gaider as he intended, then there is no way Yami is going to just let that go. They will undoubtedly retaliate," Maya said, referring to Akisame with simply the 'san' suffix as he had allowed her to do so.

"And there is something else too," Masataka spoke up, getting everyone's attention.

"What is it?" Maya asked. And that was when Masataka began to speak of his meeting with Souichiro.

The rest of the afternoon and the night past by fast following this and the next day was a free day for the class. Souichiro, still clad in the same clothes from the day before, stuck with Makoto and her group as they all played some beach volleyball, which Souichiro sat out on.

The reason behind this was that he was observing both Boris and Kenichi. The two of them had returned the day before not long after he met up with the class and they managed to use Kyoko to explain their absence. He was watching them now because he wanted to make sure that they no longer were in contact with Masataka. The last thing he wanted was to start having another near-takeover by Sohaku around the class.

The rest of the Shinpaku Alliance was also watching Boris in case he decided to try anything even though late last night, Kenichi told them all of what happened and of Boris' promise to not cause anymore trouble. However, some of the guys such as Matsu and Kurokawa were distracted by Rachel, whose a little less than modest bikini revealed her tremendous assets as she jumped back and forth over a pole that Ethan and surprisingly Kensei held a foot above the ground.

Souichiro raised an eyebrow at the appearance of Kensei. "What the hell is an old guy like him doing here? He's no teacher," he thought, not knowing that Kensei was a martial artist.

The master in question was there partially to get a much closer look at Souichiro out of concern of what could happen and also doing so for the Juken Club after what Masataka told them the other day. However, when he arrived to the beach, he was immediately enthralled by Rachel's curvaceous figure and thus his current position.

Despite this, it was a rather fun day in general for the class, only some members of the Shinpaku Alliance such as Nijima, Miu, Kenichi, and a few others being cautious around the YOMI members. Souichiro too wasn't exactly feeling too good still from yesterday and mainly stuck to the sidelines, though every now and then he would get talked into participating by Makoto.

As for Boris, he searched for the two boys that had stood up to him the previous day and asked them to watch over Kyoko when he left for Russia and to also keep the class in line. The boys in question were surprised by this as they would not have expected the Russian teen to ask them something like that. Despite this, they agreed.

The rest of the beach camp past by fast and it soon was time for the class to return back home. When they did, Boris left the school and went back to Russia, but not before leaving a seemingly parting gift by cleaning all of the windows in a single night.

Kyoko was deeply saddened over this, but she went through her paces as normal. She was pleasantly surprised though when some students would act up only to get properly disciplined by the rest of the class, with the two boys that Boris asked a favor of, leading them. Boris left a bigger impact on the school than anyone had expected.

The Juken Club still took to watching over the school alongside the Shinpaku Alliance, though from a bit of a greater distance than normal due to Masataka's meeting with Souichiro. They didn't want to set him off on some kind of rampage inside the school, especially not during school hours.

Souichiro himself still seemed a bit worried over Sohaku, feeling him at the back of his mind waiting for a chance to make another move. Makoto though now tried to hang out with him whenever she wasn't with Izumi and so she provided a bit of a distraction from Sohaku, something that Souichiro was silently thankful for. Aya, who would watch some of these interactions from a distance along with the others, couldn't help but feel a bit jealous.

Meanwhile, the members of One Shadow Nine Fists met to discuss the defeat and imprisonment of one of their members. "So Gaider was defeated," one of them, a tall elderly man with a well-muscled build with long hair and dressed in Indian clothes commented. His name was Sehrul Rahman.

"Hmph, what a loser," a man in a mask, known as Silcardo Junazard said as he ate an apple.

"So where is he now? Locked up, I'd presume," a tall, incredibly muscular man with dark skin, spiky red hair, and a perpetual smile on his face asked. He was Agaard Jum Sai.

Kensei was there as well along with Kushinada Mikumo and Diego Carlo. The other members of Yami was scattered across the globe and so had a video screen set up in their usual spots to broadcast a live feed of them. They mainly stayed silent.

"Most likely," Kensei said, a smile on his face. He then turned to face their leader, the One Shadow, or Ichiei, who was sitting in his usual seat, a set of blinds obscuring his face. All that could be seen of him was his body from his chest down, revealing a tall, slim yet amazingly well-muscled body that could still be seen through the dark blue business suit that the One Shadow wore. "isn't that right?" he asked.

"Yes. The Fist of Destruction is now incarcerated. He will not be getting out anytime soon," The One Shadow responded calmly.

"In that case, I really don't see a point in this meeting," Agaard said, "unless there is something else."

"None. For now, save for that Shirahama Kenichi, our disciples' target, is still alive and well," the One Shadow replied. He paused for a moment. "Meeting adjourned."

At his words, the screens that were in placement of some of the One Shadow Nine Fists switched off, the members ending the live feed.

The members there in the room though remained, save for Silcardo, who left, having found the meeting too boring for himself. Agaard also turned to leave. "Ha ha ha, well, if that really is it, then I think I'll get back to training my disciple. I wonder how he will react to his target still being alive." He left after that.

Mikumo, Kensei, and Diego remained. Diego let out a laugh. "Well, this sure was a surprise! It's not every day someone comes back from the dead."

"Indeed. Perhaps this boy is more skilled than we thought," Mikumo commented, "I will have to inform my disciple of this soon before she attends his school."

"I doubt it will be necessary. After all, I have Souichiro there to take care of things," Kensei said with a smirk. He had been glad to have Souichiro forced into being his disciple; it allowed him to perform some of his martial arts experiments without worry thanks to Souichiro's supernatural constitution. His other disciples also made for good experiments, especially Ryuto, even though the teen was wheelchair bound. Another one was also especially talented, having served alongside Ryuto back in Ragnarok as the Second Fist. Out of all of his disciples, Kensei felt that he and Souichiro were his biggest successes.

"Nonetheless, it wouldn't do to keep her uninformed," Mikumo responded before taking her leave. Diego at this time followed her lead, a look of contemplation on his face. Kensei and the One Shadow paid no mind to said expression.

Now that the two of them were alone, they proceeded to speak to one another. "So how goes the experiment? Any progress?" Kensei asked with a smirk.

The Saint Fist felt the One Shadow's gaze shift to him even though he couldn't see his eyes. "Yes. Progress has been surprisingly fast. It will be completed soon for _him_. Then _he _can join our ranks."

Kensei smiled, glad to hear that. "That sure was fast. It must be because of those abnormal properties associated with that right eye of Souichiro's. After all, it isn't his own."

The One Shadow shifted from his seat, getting up and began to leave. "If there is nothing else…" he began.

Kensei put his hands up sheepishly. "I'll be on my way," he replied. He turned around and made for the door, chuckling as he did so. "Looks like the Eternal Setting Sun is going to be very interesting if he is around for it." He left right after saying that.

The One Shadow merely stood where he was, Kensei's words just now remaining in his head. "Sohaku… soon it will be time for you to join Yami and assist in our plans."

* * *

So what do you think? Sort of eventful, ha ha ha.

To any and all HSDK fans that have been keeping up with the more recent chapters of the series, you guys undoubtedly know who the One Shadow is and who Kensei was referring to in his little paragraph about his disciples, ha ha ha. Looks like I made it too obvious right? Anyways, no surprises just yet, but I will be letting some loose relatively soon. Hope you all look forward to that.

Thanks once more for reading and don't hesitate to review!


	20. Chapter 20

Yo, readers! Holy crap it has been quite some time since the last chapter! Man, looks like my finals took up more of my time than I thought; studying for them and all that jazz. But my 3rd semester at college has come to an end already! Wow, just goes to show how fast time flies sometimes. Kind of a shame; I really enjoyed my classes this time around.

Also, another factor that sort of delayed this chapter was equal parts writer's block (which I find to be rather sad and a bit of a slap in the face to me since I originally had it and the next chapter or two planned out) and some form of laziness due to the semester being over. Oh well, at least I'll be finding something to do during the winter break until the next semester. Here's to hoping that the next semester will be a good one.

Now, let's get this started!

P.S. Chances are, I will not be able to update again until maybe mid-January or so. That being said, allow me to wish you all an early Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! Stay safe guys and have fun!

Chapter 20

It has been several days since Boris left and during that time, the remaining members of YOMI had taken to simply continuing their school experience. Rachel continued to do anything and everything possible to have everyone's attention while her brother took to being a normal student, though he did help out others on a regular basis. Souichiro too did what he usually did when he first started at this school, namely going through every day as quietly as possible.

"Souichiro-san, you want to each lunch with us?" a girl asked that was seated next to Makoto and Izumi in the cafeteria, where he was currently at.

School life had changed considerably for Souichiro ever since Makoto had started cheering for him in the swimming race. The students, although still somewhat wary around him, had really seemed to just be taken to him now, much to his bewilderment. Not that he was complaining, but it was definitely not something he had been expecting.

"Sure," he replied and walked on over to where the girls were hanging out, not noticing a blush on her face or the blushes on any of the other girls in his immediate vicinity. Ever since the swimming race and they started to get used to him, the girls started to develop a bit of a crush on him as they recalled seeing how well-built he was in his swimming trunks. They even began to liken his personality to that of the cool, strong, and silent type. This began a mini fan club of sorts, one that the true warrior was completely unaware of.

He took a seat next to Makoto, the bench creaking under his Ki, but thankfully not breaking. "How's your day going so far?" Makoto asked as she smiled at the teenaged boy. She and Izumi have taken to hanging out with Souichiro ever since the trip.

"Same old, same old." Souichiro just shrugged as he answered.

"That sucks. It must be boring to the same thing all the time," the girl from earlier asked as she sat across from Souichiro.

"Meh. I'll get used to it," Souichiro replied as he swept a hand through his long hair when several large strands of it fell down in front of his face. He would have simply willed his hair to go back into place, but he didn't want to freak out the girls with his red feather ability. He was unaware of his current action making the girls around him blush further as his hand sweep looked like something out of some kind of movie with a badass, good looking male actor that the girls just seem to adore.

"S-So, you've been here at our school here for a while now," the girl spoke up, "w-what do you think of it? Do you like the people here?" she asked.

Makoto frowned, but tried to hide it. She realized that the last statement of the girl's was a very, very subtle way of asking Souichiro if he seemed to like the girls here. This annoyed her for some reason that she couldn't think of.

If she was looking back and forth between Souichiro and the girl, she probably would have noticed Izumi, who was sitting across from her next to a few other girls, smile knowingly at her. Makoto waited with almost bated breath for Souichiro's answer.

Souichiro himself was currently taking a quick chug of a soda he got his hands on just prior to this little meeting with the girls. Then he spoke. "It's not bad." He paused. "And the people here are pretty cool. Better than the ones I used to run into."

Makoto remembered him mentioning something a little similar back when they were on that mountain climb. "Say, Souichiro-kun, just what do you mean by that anyway?" she asked. She didn't seem to notice that she had started to refer to him with the –kun suffix for the past few days.

He leaned forward onto his arms, which he now had on top of the table, making that groan a bit in protest under his dense Ki. He pondered how to answer that. Should he tell her the whole truth and see if she and the other girls here believe a word he says or should he just sugarcoat it a bit? He thought about that a bit before deciding to go with the latter option. "Let's just say some people there had a thing for causing shit," he told them all vaguely.

"Eh? So the people at your old school liked to cause trouble?" one girl asked. "and you would get caught up in it?"

Souichiro contemplated that. "Kind of." He wasn't exactly lying as the whole situation with the Executive Council and F were things he hadn't asked for, but those guys were the ones to do things that seemed to just drag him and the Juken Club in.

"Eh! Did you end up getting hurt?" another girl asked, concerned. The other girls looked worried as well. Makoto did too and so did Izumi, but not as much as the former.

Souichiro then did something that they haven't seen him do before. He seemed to snicker. "I got my beatings here and there. Though I made sure to try and return the favor," he said with something that could possibly pass for a smirk. The fights he had at Todo may have been brutal and a lot may have depended on the outcome of each battle he was in, but he'd be lying to himself if he were to say that he didn't enjoy the fights on some level.

At that statement, the girls looked scared, not of him, but of the fact that he was beaten. However, Makoto seemed to have the most extreme reaction out of them all. "Wait! You were beaten! How often and were you alright afterwards!" she nearly yelled, standing up suddenly, shocking everyone. Even Souichiro was taken aback. But then Makoto realized a split second what she just did as she could feel the people in the cafeteria stare at her in confusion and she mumbled an apology as she sat back down slowly.

"Y-Yeah," Souichiro said in an unsure voice, mentally reeling from Makoto's reaction just now. And her yelling also earned him a few stares of shock as well as everyone found it hard to believe that there were other people out there strong enough to beat him. "Let's just say my old school has a thing for martial arts and some guys there were pretty damn good at it."

That made the girls blink. "Martial arts?" This made them think of the Shinpaku Alliance as they knew the members practiced it.

"So the Shinpaku Alliance really does exist here. And is led by that alien." They were all taken aback; the voice had belonged to none of them. It just sounded too young.

They all turned towards the edge of their table to see a young girl, maybe just a few years younger than them, standing there. The girl had black hair tied into a ponytail that went down the right side of her head and she had emotionless grey eyes. Her face was unreadable. Not only that, but they all couldn't help but raise an eyebrow at the fact that the girl was wearing the skirt that girls here at the school wore, but instead of the button up shirt everyone had, she instead wore a uniform that pinged more Chinese to the girls and Souichiro.

"Who are you?" Souichiro asked the girl.

She gazed at him, making Souichiro flinch a bit in annoyance as it seemed the girl was trying to analyze him or something. "Kushinada Chikage," the girl, Chikage, introduced herself, bowing slightly to him.

Souichiro perked up a bit, now interested. He recognized Chikage's surname. "Hey, wait, that's the same name as…" he drifted off.

Chikage nodded. "Yes. She is my master," she replied.

The other girls and Makoto just watched this, confused and slightly annoyed. Confused because they had no idea what was going on and slightly annoyed because Souichiro seemed to have more of an interest in this younger girl than them. Some started to wonder if perhaps Souichiro was a lolicon.

Souichiro was currently unaware of the thoughts running rampant in the girls behind him. "I never met you before," he commented. He had thought he had met most of YOMI, but it seemed like that wasn't the case.

"My master prefers to train me most of the time and as such I never interacted with the others." Chikage's facial expression never changed throughout all of this.

Souichiro leaned back in his seat, staring at the girl. Chikage didn't even flinch under his gaze whereas just about anyone else would have broken out into a sweat. This just confirmed that something was wrong with her. "She's like that old lady; no emotion," he thought.

Chikage's eyes were a dead giveaway. And in a way, her personality kind of reminded him of himself back when he was growing up. All of the kids would tease him and pick on him because of what his mother did as a demon exorcist. It was a horrible experience, one that, now that he thought of it, led to him being the energetic, fight-loving punk that he became. If he hadn't gone down that road, then it was now obvious to him that instead he could have ended up like Chikage right here before him.

"Hey, Souichiro-kun." Souichiro turned around slightly to see Makoto looking at him with a questioning gaze. "Uh, do you know her?"

"No," Souichiro answered back truthfully.

Makoto blinked at that before looking at Chikage. Said girl, upon feeling Makoto's stare, looked right at her, making the older girl blink in a bit of nervousness now that she saw for herself how emotionless her eyes were. "Can I help you?" Chikage asked in a polite, but flat voice.

Makoto looked a little taken aback. "Er, no. Sorry."

"So what exactly are you doing here?" Souichiro asked Chikage.

"Merely to see for myself the true warrior Susano. My master told me that she and the others speak rather highly of your power. I see now that they were not exaggerating; your Ki is beyond anything I have ever sensed before." Chikage certainly didn't look impressed despite her words. "However, I am also curious about something else. I would have asked one of the others, but it seems that they are too busy to talk to right now." She was referring to Rachel and Ethan, both of whom were busy helping out the photography club, the former gladly serving as a model for them while her brother provided the lighting for the photos.

"What is it?" Souichiro questioned.

Chikage got straight to the point. "Why is he still around? I thought he was already taken care of," she asked.

Souichiro looked at her, slightly bewildered by the question before he understood who she meant: Kenichi. He was and still is the target of YOMI, but ever since his unexpected recovery from Tirawit's and Souichiro's supposedly fatal blows, the latter having struck him unintentionally though, all of them have received orders to stand by until the masters could figure something out. "We're not supposed to do anything just yet," he replied as he looked Chikage dead in the eye. "He's off limits for now."

Chikage just stared at him for a moment or two, the girls and now the rest of the students in the cafeteria staring at the two silent people having an impromptu staring contest, many coming to admire Chikage for being able to keep such a straight face before Souichiro like that.

Finally, Chikage spoke. "I see. Thank you." She then took a few steps back, bowed in thanks, and turned to leave.

Souichiro just watched her walk away, confused. "Why the hell would she ask me about that? Does she have something against that guy?" he wondered.

He started to think about this, curious as to why Chikage would show up now and why he never met her before during his time so far with YOMI. He was so deep in thought that it took him a moment or two to realize that Makoto was tapping him on the shoulder to get his attention. "Hm?"

"You alright?" she asked. "I don't really know what you and that girl were talking about, but it looked like it was bugging you."

"I'm fine. Just thinking is all." He was thankful that his current situation made it rather difficult for him to actively express emotion otherwise he was sure Makoto would call him out on his current confusion and curiosity. He suppressed the urge to sigh. It seemed like things were going to start getting complicated.

Almost an hour later, Kenichi was busy. Busy trying not to fall out of his seat in shock. The reason behind this being that Ma Renka, daughter of his master Kensei, had just transferred to his school and was currently being introduced to the class.

"H-How did this happen?" he thought. It was during the past few days that a few students of Kensei's group in China, the Three Headed Dragon team that Kenichi fought in the D of D tournament, was running for their lives from assassins sent after them, an affair that resulted in him and Apachai getting involved in, the latter bailing them out of it by beating the assassin sent after them, that being a master by the name of Kei Retsumin. This battle took place at Kensei's uncle's restaurant and it was there that Kenichi met up with Renka after a long time. Following this, the Three Headed Dragon team was pretty much coerced into working at the restaurant, put in charge of cleaning up the mess that Apachai made from the fight.

Kenichi had thought that this would the last time he'd see Renka for a while, but today he found himself being proven quite wrong. "Hi there! I'm Ma Renka from China! Nice to meet you!" she said happily, striking a pose as she did so. She wore the same school uniform as the other girls, though she wore a vest over the shirt.

The superintendent, who was the one to introduce Renka, was happy now that it appeared as though the school was starting to globalize. This happiness was dashed and changed to anger when Renka went to go take a seat next to Kenichi, shoving a still seated student all the way to the back of the room, shocking just about everyone with her speed and strength, save for Kenichi and Miu, who were just shocked that she'd just cheerily do that to a random person. It didn't help that the superintendent chalked this up to her knowing Kenichi and within moments, Kenichi found himself in a room along with Miu, Renka, and said older man.

The man was about to launch into some kind of lecture, but Renka was able to put a stop to it by flattering the school, which made the man smile and reconsider his near action, though before he dismissed them, he did ask her to be more cautious with her actions.

And now Kenichi found himself with Miu and Renka out in the hallway, the two girls glaring at each other. The Ryozanpaku disciple felt that this wasn't going to go too well; the girls, Miu at least, looked rather angry for some reason. He didn't notice Renka eyeing him.

"Why are you here?!" Miu demanded of Renka.

Renka snorted. "Here to help of course! Aren't YOMI here at this school? I feel a little uneasy with you being the only guard for Kenichi!" she retorted, a smirk on her face.

Miu's eyebrow twitched. She knew that what Renka said wasn't exactly true as the Shinpaku Alliance did have Kenichi's back and so did the Juken Club, even though the latter was still just watching from afar still, not to mention their main focus being Souichiro.

Miu sighed and figured it'd be best to tell Renka about this so that she wouldn't do anything rash, but right when she was about to speak, Renka took that second to look out the window and suddenly perk up; she just spotted Chikage, who was now leaving her class and walking across the school grounds.

Chikage, sensing someone watching her, looked up and right into Renka's eyes. Miu and Kenichi saw this and immediately didn't like where this was going.

As for Renka herself, she felt a small chill run up her spine, before a bit of a smirk broke out on her face. "Those eyes… the way you behave…" she muttered as she opened up the window and leapt out, Miu and Kenichi moving to stop her, but were unsuccessful in doing so. "You're YOMI!" she yelled as she landed perfectly.

Miu jumped out the window too, surprising Kenichi. "Hey, wait!" he yelled, but Miu had already landed and quickly moved next to Renka.

"I've found one immediately! Am I lucky or what?" Renka said with a smile.

Miu tried not to sigh. "Actually, we found this one a while ago…" she muttered. And this was true, Chikage had actually first made an appearance here at the school just a few days ago and she had immediately pegged her as a member of YOMI. Kenichi did too, though he did make an effort to try and bond with Chikage during her short time here so far. Said girl was both duly amused and annoyed by Kenichi's attempts to befriend her, hence why she had asked Souichiro earlier about him. This was something the others didn't know.

Chikage slowly began to take a stance, her legs spreading away from each other ever so slightly while she relaxed her arms. "A new enemy? I don't mind. I can deal with anyone besides Shirahama as I please," she casually said to the two girls.

Miu tried to move in front of Renka in order to keep her from doing anything rash. "Wait! Please!" she tried to reason.

However, Renka pushed her aside. "Don't even try to stop me, Miu." She moved forward. "Because I, the leader of the Phoenix Alliance's daughter, have been challenged by Yami's disciple organization YOMI, no one in this world can prevent me from accepting this fight!" She then began to prepare for a fight as did Chikage.

Meanwhile, Kenichi, having not had enough courage to just go jumping out the window like his female companions did just moments ago, he was currently running as fast as possible down the hall and to the stairs. "Oh, this is bad! Renka-san, you can't fight that child!" he thought as he saw that some students were walking down the stairs when he reached them. Not wanting to have to force his way past them, he simply leapt from the top of the stairs to the bottom, earning him stares from the students he past them.

"Shirahama?!" Two of the students he had past up were none other than Makoto and Izumi. Class had only let out just several minutes ago hence the reason why they were going down the stairs now rather than earlier.

"He sure is in a hurry…" Makoto muttered.

"He looked like something bad just happened. I hope he's okay," Izumi said from beside, her voice full of concern.

Makoto glanced at her friend and patted her on the back. "I'm sure he'll be fine." She said this with complete sincerity, but at the same time, her mind was focused on something or rather someone else. "I wonder what is up with that girl. I hear she is pretty smart," she thought. She asked around a bit after lunch with Souichiro and the others and discovered Chikage's name and that she was said to be a genius. However, her seemingly emotionless attitude disturbed her. It was as if the girl was some kind of sociopath.

But what was bugging her before and still is was just what is the connection between Souichiro and her? It seemed as if they belonged to some kind of group, but Souichiro didn't know who Chikage was until today. Something was up and Makoto quietly resolved to get to the bottom of it.

While this was going on, Kenichi still kept running towards his intended destination. "Geh, why didn't I just jump from the window?" he thought to himself. Looking back at it, the fall wasn't that bad, just being a few stories high. Instead, here he was effectively taking the long way around. And he was still on the second floor too.

Deciding now to just ditch the rest of the stairs down to the bottom, Kenichi spotted an open window and jumped right out. However, he had been moving at nearly full speed when running and so when he jumped and tried to land, he messed up a bit and landed on his left shoulder. Thankfully for him, it was something that he could easily shrug off.

He then looked up from his spot on the ground to see that the fight between Renka and Chikage had already gotten underway. Renka charged forward at the younger girl and made a punching motion towards to her head. But in the blink of an eye, Renka ended up being nearly a dozen feet in the air.

"Wha-?" she, Miu, and Kenichi thought. It was obvious that Chikage had tossed her, but the move had been executed so fast that they barely saw it happen.

"Hmph, well in that case…" Renka then began to flip around in midair, positioning herself above Chikage before she managed to make herself dive-bomb towards her. She moved her arms to her side as she prepared to strike. "Take my desperation attack!"

And it was at that instant, Kenichi spoke up. "Renka-san, please stop!" he yelled.

Much to the face-faulting surprise of Miu and the now guarding Chikage, Renka did. The Chinese girl intentionally missed her mark with whatever attack she had planned and upon landing on the ground, moved towards Kenichi's fallen form, a blushing smile on her face. "Understood. If it's Kenichi, it's okay," she said with a smile.

Kenichi, just as shocked as Miu at this, quickly got a little annoyed and got back to his feet. "That girl is a friend of mine!"

"But she's YO-," Renka began only for Kenichi to shush her.

Miu moved shakily towards Renka. "I thought you said no one could stop you?"

Renka giggled. "Kenichi is the exception."

"I don't get it." The three stopped what they were doing to look at Chikage, who still had her fighting stance assumed. "Just how can you act like that?" she questioned.

The voice that responded to Chikage didn't belong to the three though. "Oh ho ho, do you remember? Part of this mission is to blend into your environment."

Chikage looked behind her to see Rachel and her brother walking towards them. Miu and Renka stiffened in case they try anything while Kenichi didn't bother doing anything, firmly believing that they won't be up to trouble just yet.

Rachel smirked at the young girl. "Being forced into a fight this easily… I guess even a genius can't calculate the human heart, eh?" she said, trying to goad the girl.

"This is none of your business," Chikage responded, with just the slightest bit of annoyance in her voice.

"Oh yeah?" A heavy Ki enveloped the whole area, making everyone stiffen. Miu and Kenichi along with Chikage, Rachel and Ethan were the only ones to not be affected too much.

Renka, however, was a different story. The Chinese girl froze where she was, sweat breaking out on her forehead and arms. Her breath became shallow as the Ki completely overwhelmed her senses. "W-What… is… this…?" she muttered slowly. She had gone up against assassins without so much as a bat of the eyelashes and many of these opponents had possessed considerable Ki, but this Ki was far beyond it. It was easily on par with elite masters! And the insanely malevolent feel of it terrified the normally spunky girl.

Kenichi answered her question. "It's him," he muttered.

And sure enough, Souichiro appeared. He was the one who just spoke, his eyes locked onto Chikage. "You know, I spent most of class just thinking about our little first meeting earlier and I think I have a few more questions for you," he said as he walked towards her with hands in pockets.

Rachel and Ethan moved a bit to the side for Souichiro as the teen didn't seem he'd be swerving around them to get to the girl. "Yes, senpai?" Chikage asked.

The senpai part took Souichiro a bit by surprise, but then remembered that she was a freshman and he wasn't. He was always used to calling others senpai. "Since you just got here recently, you must have been in more contact with your master and the others than us, right?" He felt he may be going out on a bit of a limb here, but he had to know something.

Chikage nodded. "Yes." She had dropped her fighting stance and was now looking at Souichiro, but she still did her best to also pay attention to Renka, Miu, and Kenichi.

"In that case, do you know what else they have planned? Usually, I don't find out from them, but instead from these guys," Souichiro said as he gestured to the Stanley siblings. He felt he had to ask this because despite how long he has been working with Yami and YOMI so far, he never really trusted any of them save for a select few such as Kajima and Ryuto. The true warrior felt that the feeling was mutual given that Rachel and Ethan seemed to serve as liaisons between him and them so far at this school. And because of his past experiences with groups like F, he was naturally worried now. Today, Chikage showing up only confirmed it for him as he hadn't met her until today.

"No. I know as much as you do," Chikage responded.

Souichiro, who had been leaning a bit forward as he asked, now stood up a bit straighter, looking directly into Chikage's eyes to see if maybe the girl was lying or something, but a moment later, he sighed. "Is that so?"

Chikage nodded.

"Fine then. Did they tell you anything about something called red feathers?" It has been quite some time since he ever heard word of a red feather. Either he had taken just about every red feather ability out there in the world, save for Aya's and that surviving red feather family with the illusions ability or Yami was holding out on him for one reason or another.

Chikage shook her head. "I've heard nothing of the sort."

Souichiro once more stared at her, now actually considering if maybe he should just use an ability to try and get some more information out of her, but then decided against it. "I'll take your word for it." His tone didn't exactly seem to imply that he really felt that way. He then glanced at Renka, Miu, and Kenichi, the latter two merely staring at him with a serious gaze that matched his own while the former actually took a step back from him even though the three were still a good distance away from him already.

He looked back at Chikage several seconds later. "Thanks. I guess." That said, he spared another glance at the three, giving them a curt nod before walking off.

"Gee, well you sure know how to kill a mood," Rachel muttered as the true warrior walked once again past her and Ethan, the American girl pouting cutely. "Just come strolling into other people's business."

Souichiro merely spared her a brief glance before rolling his eyes. "Look who's talking, kettle." He continued walking away and soon his monstrous Ki that had been pressing down on the area left with him.

Rachel merely pouted again. "Kettle? Oh, one day I'll show him," she said. Then her cell phone rang. "Oh?" She and her brother then took off so that she could speak somewhere in private.

Now that merely left the four people that were there to start with: Chikage, Renka, Miu, and Kenichi. Chikage spared a glance towards the three, taking note of Renka's shocked and frozen state. "Well, if there is nothing further, then I will be leaving now," she said. She didn't bother waiting for a reply before walking away herself.

Now that just left Miu and Kenichi merely staring at the still unmoving Renka. Then Renka started to suddenly move. "J-J-Just who was that!" she yelled, taking the two totally by surprise.

Kenichi managed to recover first though. "A-Ah, yeah, looks like we need to update you on some things," he said sheepishly.

As he and Miu began to tell Renka what was going on, Rachel was currently in a deserted hallway. She had her brother go on with his usual school life and now she was currently on the phone. "Yes, maestro," she said. She was speaking to her master, Diego Carlo. "The preparations are complete."

She then reached down the front of her shirt and pulled out a letter in a red velvet envelop with a red ribbon on it. She smirked in glee. "This time, no one will get in the way."

* * *

And that is a wrap! Yeah, sorry if it seemed like I jumped around too much in this chapter. If you recall from the manga, in between the time Renka shows up in school and the part with Rachel speaking to her master about that letter, there was a several chapters long spar between Kenichi and Takeda. As much as I would have liked to do that spar, with my own spin on it, I decided to just move forward instead.

Now that doesn't mean Takeda won't have a chance to show off; I have something planned for him later. Up next though is the Master-Disciple tag match! Oh yeah, I got a few surprises in store for that one. I hope you all look forward to that!

Thanks for reading and please be sure to review!


	21. Chapter 21

Hope you all had good Christmas and New Years! Man, it feels good to get this chapter done after the new year has started. That and I feel it is time to once again go job hunting! Thanks to my experience at the internship this past semester, I should be able to put that down on a resume/application and get the job I want. Maybe I'll go for an office job; I'd probably be best suited to those given the nature of my now over internship…

On a side note, I finally managed to get Tenjho Tenge 2-in-1 vol. 10, consisting of vols. 19 and 20! It has been several years since I started to wait for those two volumes to be translated into English. I am grateful that my patience paid off; in addition to having a truly epic part of Tenjho Tenge in actual manga format before me, it also lets me use the material to refresh the finer points of the story for me to use in my fic.

Aside from that, let's get on with the chapter!

Chapter 21

Several days have past since Renka transferred to Kenichi's school. During that time, something odd had happened at Ryozanpaku: a letter was sent to them from the Smiling Fist, Diego Carlo. Kenichi, who had received the letter originally, hadn't bothered to look in it mainly due to him assuming it to be a love letter from Takeda to Miu, which had prompted the disciple to run off to go buy said girl a gift as he felt it wouldn't do to be upstaged. Renka, who had stopped by before Kenichi suddenly took off, had actually smelled perfume on the letter and recognized it as the kind that Rachel wore. It was she who then showed it to the masters of Ryozanpaku. Naturally, they were very concerned when they first read the contents of the letter.

"A one disciple and one master tag team match, huh," Kensei muttered, wrapping his mind around that idea.

"Diego Carlo, the Smiling Fist, huh?" Sakaki said with a bit of a grin, finding this tag team idea to be rather amusing.

"There's a pair of masks…" Maya said as she held up said object. When the Ryozanpaku masters had opened up the letter and read it, they felt that Maya should be called as she was practically their liaison between them and the Juken Club whenever the latter was off doing their own thing, namely patrolling sections of the city to watch for Souichiro. She had arrived quickly enough.

"I'm out," Sakaki said, sweat dropping at the masks the buxom girl held.

Akisame rubbed his chin in wonder. "Hmm, I wonder if Kenichi-kun should choose which of us should go along with him." It was obvious that Kenichi would be the target still and that the YOMI disciple of Diego would undoubtedly try to kill him during this event.

Shigure, who was in the rafters above, dropped down from her spot. "Ah… he just came back a while ago… and took Miu with him somewhere…"

Her words had the effect of shocking both Hayato and Renka, the former because he definitely hadn't expected Kenichi to do such a thing without him knowing while the latter was now concerned about her chances with Kenichi.

Maya nodded. "I did see those two run off somewhere…" she tried to say this without accidently implying any kind of other meaning behind her words; Hayato was starting to switch from shock to increasing anger and she couldn't imagine how terrifying an enraged Invincible Superman would look like, but she didn't want to see it.

Shigure moved next to her. "If these days of fighting… continue, Kenichi may… fall apart," she said, steering the conversation back onto the main topic.

Renka now perked up. "That's right! If that girl is going to be there, Kenichi can't fight! He can't hit a girl!" she exclaimed, "what do we do?!"

Kensei still looked over the letter. "Calm down, daughter. I don't see 'bring Shirahama Kenichi' anywhere on this letter of challenge," he said with a small grin.

Renka immediately perked. "Then you're saying…"

Kensei chuckled. "How about it Renka? It's been a while since you've gone anywhere with me."

His daughter then nearly jumped into the air in joy. "Alright! Then it looks like it's one big battle for me!" she yelled happily as she took to start leaving, eager to get this upcoming fight started. "Because Kenichi would get worried if he knew about this, keep it a secret from him, okay?"

Kensei sighed. "Hmm, just like my daughter, very sensible," he muttered. He then glanced at Renka. "Though how about we actually take a bit of time to prepare first," he said.

Renka stopped in her tracks. "Whoops, ha ha ha," she said sheepishly.

Maya stepped forward. "Say, Kensei-san?"

Said master faced the Juken Club captain. "Yes?"

"Would it be alright if I send someone with you two?" she asked.

Elsewhere and some time later, Souichiro was sitting in a fast food restaurant, eating away at a few hamburgers. He ignored the very fearful glances the handful of people there – most left in fear when he came in – were giving him. He did try to suppress his Ki as much as possible, but this was proving to be nigh impossible to fully do, evident by his current situation. However, some students from school were there and didn't seem to mind his Ki that much. They even said hi before they ordered their food and either left or sat with their other friends to eat. The true warrior found it rather cool, though he was sort of taken off guard by the blushes the girls of the school group sorted when greeting him.

However, he was here for more than just eating. He was also here to do a bit of thinking, which he has been doing more and more of ever since he joined YOMI, a fact that wasn't lost on him entirely. "Never would have seen this coming," he muttered to himself as he took a sip from his soda.

Souichiro was thinking about the little information he got out of Chikage. It has been bugging him ever since. He knew that she, given her lack of emotion, most likely wouldn't lie to anyone save for anything that could compromise herself or her master, but the true warrior felt that something was off. It almost seemed like Yami was holding out on him a bit. Even though they had managed to help him track down a few more red feathers during his time working with YOMI and them since joining, the abilities and Ki he gained from the red feathers weren't enough to quell Sohaku's influence. And it has been quite some time since his last red feather encounter too. The fact that he received orders via messages passed to him from other members of YOMI rather than direct contact like with the other disciples only cemented this growing belief of Souichiro's.

"Should I just leave those guys?" he wondered. It was starting to seem as though now the deal he had with Yami was now just benefitting them and not him anymore. He was nothing more than a tool in their eyes and he didn't like it, not one little bit. He has had enough of this shit with F and the fucker that is his father.

"But first… I gotta find out what is really going on," he surmised. As much as he felt weird admitting it, at least to himself, leaving YOMI didn't feel like a decision he'd happily make. Despite how things would get just a little tense between him and some members, some of them such as Kajima, Ryuto, and a select few others were actually rather nice to him, though Ryuto was less nice and more aloof to him. Still, Souichiro could say that it was a step up from some other people in YOMI and Yami's many divisions.

The true warrior sighed. Though he felt sure in what he'd have to do next, whenever he has a chance to see Yami again that it, he still felt some hesitation in this decision. He just really hoped that everything won't turn out too bad. Who knows, maybe he'll even be able to figure out a way to kill Sohaku once and for all along the way.

Back with Kensei and Renka, the two had met up with Bob, who Maya had called up and requested to go along with them. The three had promptly left for Diego's cruise ship, which was specified in the letter of challenge to be where they will fight, Renka questioning Bob more on the whole situation regarding the Juken Club and Souichiro. Bob, for his part, was a little confused as to why Maya would send him along with them. While he had confidence in his own still growing fighting prowess, especially when it came to discerning the 'rhythm' of his opponents' attacks, the tall Juken Club member knew from the get-go that Renka and Kensei were above him in skill, especially the latter from the tales and exploits he heard of him from Maya.

Eventually, they arrived. "Damn," Bob muttered as he stared at the ship before them. It was large to say the least, even by the usual standards for such cruise ships. Not a single speck of dirt, rust, or anything else could be spotted on it and it was clear from a simple glance that a trip on this ship was probably noticeably more expensive than usual.

Renka appeared to be in agreement with him. "Waah, it's magnificent!" she exclaimed with a smile, her mood going from serious just now with her conversation with Bob to almost child-like as she eyed the cruise ship. For the briefest second, one could argue that the young Chinese girl almost forgot why they were there.

Kensei didn't share their enthusiasm though. "Hey, what are you two getting so excited about!" he said to them sternly, "we're in the middle of the enemy camp!" This snapped the two out of their slight stupor.

They proceeded to walk up the pathway for the cruise ship until they were just about to board. They were greeted by a fairly curvaceous woman with short hair and dressed in a business suit, complete with a skirt that seemed that a bit shorter than the norm. The woman offered them a small bow as they approached her as she stood by the entrance to the ship.

"You three are Ma Kensei, Ma Renka, and Makihara Bob, yes? We have been waiting for you," the woman said in a polite and professional tone of voice.

Said three people narrowed their eyes at her, Bob getting creeped out by how casual and sure she seemed. He felt a little tempted to punch her. "What the hell…?" he thought.

However, the tense moment quickly came to an end when Kensei suddenly pulled out his signature camera. "Miss, do you have any interest in modeling?" he asked, a perverted smirk on his face. Renka looked appalled. Bob looked shocked too, but now felt like laughing. He liked this guy.

The woman, their hostess, seemingly tuned out his words. "Welcome to the ship. This way please," she calmly stated as she turned around and motioned for the trio to follow her. However, as soon as they began to comply, a sudden change occurred in the hostess' facial expression. "'Let us burn up the stage with the Yami vs. Ryozanpaku tag match! With your deaths, tonight's show will be the greatest show ever!' That is a message from my master," she told them, an unnerving smile on her face as she said with terrifying glee.

Kensei merely chuckled in response to what he figured was supposed to be an intimidation tactic. "This sure is turning out to be interesting."

Renka huffed. "The moment Ma Renka stepped on this ship was the moment your plan went down the drain! Tell your master that!" she yelled at the hostess indignantly.

Bob was just as peeved as Renka. "Yeah, that's right! And tell the little shithead that if he wants us dead, he better get ready to get his ass handed to him!" he said in his usually boastful voice when riled up against people that just assume he's going to die.

The hostess giggled, a contrast to her professional demeanor from moments ago. "I'll pass that along," she replied in a humorous voice.

Renka and Bob seethed just a little bit. Even Kensei found the woman's dismissal of their words to be rather annoying. It looked like this was going to be a long night. And not just because they had a battle to prepare for either. Kensei discreetly glanced at his daughter and Bob before suppressing a sigh. It was pretty obvious that they weren't going to let the hostess' words slide easily. He just silently hoped that nothing too crazy will happen on this night.

Unbeknownst to the trio though, they were being tailed. The people who are following them were none other than Kenichi and Miu, both of whom clearly had been enjoying a break from training, evident by the simple jeans and shirt Kenichi wore while Miu were dressed in a plain dark blue skirt, shirt, and jacket with it open enough to expose her well endowed chest. Earlier when they were enjoying a meal at a fast food restaurant, they had spotted the trio out on the street and were intrigued to see just where they were going.

They certainly weren't expecting this. "Wow, what a magnificent ship!" Kenichi whispered to Miu as they hid near said ship. "Just what are those three doing here?" he wondered aloud.

Miu shushed him as Kenichi's whisper had been louder than it should be. "Even though we're still this far away, try to keep your voice down a bit more. This is Ma we are talking about," she said as she eyed the cruise ship.

Kenichi looked at her in wonder. "But now that we've followed them this far, what do we do now? They already got on board."

Miu put a finger against her head and a look of deep thinking appeared on her face as she thought this through. Eventually, she stood up from where she had been crouching, a bit of an excited smile on her face. "Something's definitely up. Let's go and look inside the ship!" she told Kenichi as she began to move.

"W-Wait! Didn't we just come here for a little look?!" he exclaimed, but it was too late; Miu was already moving along. However, Kenichi had something else up his sleeve to hopefully get the girl he liked to see some reason. He reached into his pocket and quickly pulled out his cell phone. "How about we call Ma's cell and ask him directly?" he suggested.

Much to his relief, Miu took the suggestion, shown as the girl stopped what she was doing and made her way back to Kenichi. "Ah, I see! You can do those sorts of things too!" she said with a smile, making Kenichi once again realize the large difference between the martial arts world Miu had grown up in her whole life compared to the world he lived in prior to meeting her.

He called up Kensei and his master quickly answered. "Hi, Ma-Sifu…" Kenichi began, only to fall silent. Miu assumed Kensei had cut him off. Kenichi began to look a little panicky. "What? No, it's nothing about that picture collection!" the Ryozanpaku disciple exclaimed into his cell frantically, making Miu look rather confused, "I just noticed that you weren't here at Ryozanpaku and was wondering where you're at!"

He calmed down a second later when Kensei gave him his answer. "Eh? You're at the corner bookshop?" Kenichi would have continued if the cruise ship didn't suddenly blow its horn. Kenichi suddenly became frantic as he knew immediately that that was it. Kensei knew where he was at. And Kenichi was right; Kensei knew. Renka and Bob, who were straining their ears to listen to the conversation knew. Kenichi yelped and immediately hung up.

Kenichi could just picture Kensei muttering about him being a troublesome disciple. "Well, at least I improved from the last time around," he thought. Unknown to him, Kensei sneezed.

"Oh well, looks like we're going to have to get on the ship," Miu said chipperly.

"H-How?" Kenichi asked, "there's only one entrance!"

Miu ran up to the rope tying the ship to the port and jumped on it. "Like this!" she said as she proceeded to run across the rope and into an opening on the cruise ship. Kenichi gaped at the sight. Miu then motioned for him to do the same.

Kenichi sighed. "Where did I go wrong in life?" he muttered to himself before he slowly began to climb the rope. It took him a little longer than he would have liked, but eventually, he was on board. "My first time doing this… looks like I can do these rescue mission-like things too. I'm kind of moved!" he said as his feelings did a bit of a one eighty once he was on board.

After that, he and Miu exited the room they were in, only to be treated to the surprise of how grandiose the hallway of the ship was. It was like something out of a mansion. "W-wow. It's spacious," Kenichi commented as he and Miu walked down the hallway. He fidgeted slightly as he walked.

"If you don't act normal, it'll be suspicious," Miu informed him as she walked as casually as possible.

"R-Right," Kenichi replied and he did his best to correct his walk.

Minutes pass in silence before the two come to a balcony. Brushing aside the curtain that covered the entrance to it, they were once more treated to an unexpected sight. "Is this… some kind of secret casino?" Kenichi asked.

On the floor below the balcony, dozens upon dozens of slot machines lined the room, with poker tables and roulette machines crowded in an organized manner in the center area. Many people dressed in impeccable clothing could be seen as far as the eye could see, walking about the room, gambling to their hearts' content.

Miu walked towards the edge of the balcony and gripped the rail there. "I don't know, but something is definitely suspicious about all of this," she said.

Then laughter seemed to flood the room, coming from seemingly a single man. Kenichi shuddered slightly. "This laughter… I've heard it before. It couldn't be…"

But it was. It was none other than Diego Carlo, the Smiling Fist, who stood proudly on the floor, mike in hand as he laughed his head off. The sight of him was enough to worry the duo. "Just what is he doing here?" was what both Kenichi and Miu were thinking. They both took a few steps back from the edge of the balcony, not wanting to be spotted as Diego, for all his bravo, was an elite master and a member of Yami. If he spotted them, it was over, no questions asked.

However, the two also heard footsteps approach from the hallway they had just traversed moments ago. As voices now became audible from whoever was approaching, they knew that they were very close to being discovered. Miu, realizing that action was required right now, quickly shoved Kenichi up against the wall and pressed herself against him so that whoever was out in the hallway wouldn't be as likely to notice them. Kenichi's thoughts on this matter went flying out of his head when this happened as Miu's generous chest pressed against his own.

"Hmm, what sort of faces do you think they'd make if they knew what the real show was?" a voice said. It was one of the men in the hallway.

"He's really a man to be feared," another voice said, signifying that there was another person there as well. "I can't calm down knowing that I'm on the same ship as a damn bomb."

The duo's eyes widened at that. still, they stayed quiet, at least until the men just now left. As soon as Miu moved away from Kenichi, said teen let known his thoughts. "A-A b-bomb!" he nearly cried hysterically.

Miu tried to calm him down, only for a feminine voice on a microphone to interrupt her actions. "Hmm, what's that?"

She and Kenichi once more moved to the railing of the balcony and were treated to the sight of none other than Rachel standing over a knocked out man in the middle of a wrestling ring. It was clear from the beat up state of the man as well as the sweat Rachel, dressed in her Castor outfit, had running down her body that the two had fought. Rachel addressed the audience. "Alright! That match finished in a minute and a half! Onto the second round!" She had a finger pointed into the air, showcasing superiority. "Congratulations to those of you who guessed the closest time! First place!" This statement was met with cheers of joy from a handful of people.

"T-They're betting on the matches?" Kenichi muttered as he leaned forward a bit more, just wondering what was going on.

Miu nodded. She and Kenichi watched as the next match seemed to start, Rachel now facing off against a heavily muscled man dressed in clothes reminiscent of a gladiator. "Looks like it," she replied.

The two of them couldn't help but look shocked as the announcer spoke as the battle commenced. Apparently, if the new opponent could kill Rachel, he'd be able to win a hundred million yen, no small amount of money. "Just what is going on?" Miu wondered as she watched Rachel avoid the first attack by jumping out of the way, only for the man to toss a net at her. Rachel had almost managed to avoid it, but it wrapped itself around her right foot and the man pulled, bringing Rachel crashing down to the mat. The two winced in sympathy at the sound of the heavy thud. Sympathy gave way to shock and horror as the man wielded a trident and now stabbed right at Rachel's face. It looked like the female YOMI was done for, but a second later, they realized that she had managed to move her neck in between the forks of the trident, narrowly avoiding a quick, but bloody death.

"This is insane," Kenichi said quietly.

The people below on the ground floor weren't in the same mind frame as the Ryozanpaku teens, evident by their excited cheers. Betting commenced and as it did, they watched Rachel's facial expression shift from one of seeming worry to one of smugness as the betting period ended a mere few seconds later.

Rachel showcased an impressive display of flexibility at that instant, wrapping her legs around the trident before suddenly rolling to her left. This sudden movement forced it out of her opponent's hand and causing it to slam right into the side of his head. Though he wore a helmet, the hit still threw him off his balance. The audience 'oohed' at this. Rachel then followed this up by letting go of the trident and leaping right at the man. It looked like she would be jumping right over him, but she surprised all by wrapping her legs around his head while her upper body was positioned to face his back. She unleashed a torrent of furious punches at the man's back now. She ended it with the move Diego Tick Steiner, spinning vertically at surprising speeds, slamming the man into the ground. This took place in the span of just several seconds.

The audient winced in sympathy a bit for the man, the thud that followed the slam being positively loud and heavy. Rachel now stood tall though, earning her a round of applause as the announcer informed everyone rather enthusiastically of the match time.

Up above, Kenichi shivered a bit. "Seems like something she'd do," he said under his breath.

"Ah, so that's what's happening," Miu commented.

Kenichi gave himself a bit of whiplash as he twisted his neck to look at her over his shoulder. "W-What's happening?"

Miu didn't respond with words, but instead pointed at the ring. Kenichi looked and was shocked to see Renka and Kensei enter the ring. Renka had discarded the clothes she was in earlier, now dressed in one of her usual less than modest Chinese dresses. She gazed sternly at Rachel while Kensei merely eyed Diego, who had taken the short time between the end of the last match and this moment to appear. Outside of the ring, Bob could be seen standing just several feet away, eying the Yami master and YOMI disciple.

"R-Renka?!" Kenichi nearly yelled.

On the main floor, the Ma father-daughter duo gazed at their opponents. "You're nervous, Renka? That's rare," Kensei commented without looking.

Likewise, his daughter didn't take her eyes off of Rachel to respond. "As expected of a time when my opponent is one of YOMI. To not feel a little nervous would be weird and kinda bad."

Kensei nodded, a small smile on his face. "I see. I can't blame you for that," he commented as their opponents began to subtly radiate their Ki.

Bob, for his part, sighed. "Damn, looks like they're some tough bastards to beat. You two be careful, you hear?" he said to them.

The two nodded. "We will," they said in unison. Their battle was just about to begin.

Meanwhile, Diego's ship just gained two more passengers, both of whom, like Kenichi and Miu, were unknown to the main party and uninvited. Both of them were girls in their teens. The younger of the two was petite in build and dressed in a tight red battle outfit complete with matching gloves, black pads on her shoulders and knees that looked like something a skater would wear. She also had long light pink hair tied into two ponytails as well as shockingly light green eyes that contrasted with said hair. She was none other than Li Raichi.

"So far so good," she said in a whisper to her partner. The two of them had snuck on board the ship roughly around the same time Kenichi and Miu had done so, but the way they got on board was different from the way the Ryozanpaku teens did. Due to the area they were in being filled with many men under Diego's control, it was necessary for them to stay hidden. Until now anyways, as a good portion of the men in the area left for one reason or another.

"Alright. Then let's get moving," her partner said.

Raichi nodded. She turned to look at her partner before moving from their position. Her partner was just slightly older than her, no more than a year older at the most, but she possessed a considerably more mature figure, on par with that of Miu and other such girls. She was dressed in an outfit similar to Raichi's, though the top was slightly more casual, resembling that of a shirt. The color scheme remained roughly the same though. However, whereas Raichi's outfit was tight, but gave nothing away, the front of this girl's shirt was slightly stretched due to the girl's modest endowments. The bottom half of the outfit also ended at just a bit above the knees, showing off the girl's slim, yet rather muscular looking legs.

Said girl also had a face free of blemishes and she also possessed hazel eyes and auburn hair that was about shoulder length, though currently, she kept it in a pinned up style. A look of seriousness was on her face, her wanting to get this done as efficiently as possible. She was none other than Kamura Shizuru.

"You alright?" Raichi asked.

Shizuru nodded, a small smile on her face. "Yeah. Now let's get moving," she said.

* * *

Sooo, what do you think?

Yeah, sorry it's just essentially just a talk chapter, but not to worry; as you may have noticed by now, I have a simple pattern of doing talking chapters than fighting chapters. And I can assure you that there will be plenty of fighting and a surprise or two coming up very soon.

And what do you think? Wasn't expecting Shizuru to be back right? Ha ha ha. I've always felt that she was a character in Tenjho Tenge that, while a side character, was rather cool and just never got enough time in the manga. Given that her fate was never revealed, I took some liberties as you can see. Not to worry, I'll be explaining why she is around and with Raichi soon. Hope you look forward to it!

Thanks for reading yet another chapter and don't be shy about reviewing!


	22. Chapter 22

Ah, let me start off by saying this: DmC Devil May Cry rocks! Damn, when I first heard of it a few years back and saw Dante's new look, I hated it as much as the next guy, but when Ninja Theory proceeded to refine his character model from that of a beat up, homeless young guy to that of a rebellious, trash talking youth that actually looked cool, complete with a better voice actor and some awesome gameplay trailers to go along with this refinement, I began to look forward to it and I'm glad I did; it's just that awesome. So much so that it's taking up a noticeable amount of my time to play through to get 100% completion on all missions and get all the upgrades, secret missions, etc.

That said, in addition to this awesome new game (plus some crazy combos and amazingly fluid graphics), my new college semester is upon me! Unlike my last 3 semesters where I had 4 classes, I have 5 this time around and so until I can accurately gauge my workload from all of the classes, I can't be sure as to when I'll have another chance to write and get up the next chapter. But I will try to write when I can.

Now, with all of that out of the way, onto the chapter.

Chapter 22

Aya panted from slight exhaustion, sweat running down the side of her face. She sat on her hotel bed, dressed in a simple shirt that was a size or two too small, something that would have made any male suffer severe blood loss as her chest heaved with each pant. It wouldn't help that she's also just wearing her panties as well.

The reason behind her exhaustion: her usage of the Dragon's Eye. Ever since the class trip in the mountains, the younger Natsume sister has taken to trying to see if she can use her Dragon's Eye to try and see if she can connect to Souichiro and see where he was at and how he was doing. But whenever she tried, all she saw was darkness. It felt as though something or someone was blocking her attempts.

This worried her. Back then, she didn't have much of a problem seeing into things like the past and her ancestor Iyo had demonstrated the ability to see into the future despite it being over a few thousand years ahead. Although this had been done with the help of the reiki at the time, if Iyo could do something like that, then surely being able to see into something of the present or just a bit ahead into the future shouldn't be this hard, but Aya had been finding herself being proven quite wrong every time she tried.

"I hope Souichiro-sama is fine," she thought as she once more attempted to use her Dragon's Eye. She swore that this would be her last attempt for the night; she was tired and starting to get a little hungry, so trying anymore after this attempt would just be making her condition worse.

She activated her red feather ability and focused once more on the connection that she and Souichiro shared. Upon doing so, she was once more met with a wall of darkness. Suppressing an uncharacteristic urge to curse, Aya pushed, trying to get around the mental wall that prevented her from connecting. But not matter how much effort she put into this, the darkness remained.

Aya, determined to push just a bit more, focused even harder. Were anyone else there in the room observing her doing this, they'd be worried she'd give herself a stroke.

When it seemed like the darkness truly wouldn't budge, Aya sighed dejectedly before she decided to call it a quits for the night. However, right before she did so, it seemed as though all of her mental pushing had a delayed effect on the darkness that separated her from Souichiro; it dwindled. Not enough for her to accurately see where he was at, but it was enough for the girl to 'feel' how he was doing.

Aya gasped. She definitely hadn't expected that. With renewed energy, she eagerly checked to see how he was. Souichiro was confused, that much could be certain from a cursory feel, but what about was a mystery to Aya. Aside from this seeming confusion of her fiancée, no other emotion could be felt.

But what really grabbed Aya's attention was the feeling of his Ki. It was as terrifying and dense as it always was, but thanks to her Dragon's Eye, she was now privy to every single last detail of it. And she noted that Souichiro's Ki felt a little off. It was odd, or perhaps even more than odd. His Ki felt like it was being split in two. One half of it definitely felt like Souichiro, but the other half was one that Aya couldn't recognize. What's more is that it seemed like this unknown forming half was bleeding away from Souichiro and off to somewhere else that she couldn't locate.

"W-What is going on?" she thought. She observed this strange phenomenon for a moment longer, trying to analyze the Ki, but upon not getting anymore answers, she deactivated her Dragon's Eye.

Aya bit her lower lip, feeling a strong sense of dread. Something big was going to happen, that much she was certain of. And she was also certain that it wouldn't be good.

Meanwhile, back on the cruise ship, Kenichi and Miu, after having just witnessed Kensei and Renka enter the ring to take on Diego and Rachel, the duo quickly took off, Miu curious as to what she and Kenichi overheard just minutes ago about a bomb.

The two had taken to moving as fast as they can around the ship until they had spotted two men that they then followed. As luck would have it, the men obliviously led them to the bomb. "It's huge!" Kenichi whispered after he and Miu made sure the men had left the area before they moved out into the open.

Right before their very eyes was the mentioned bomb, easily being bigger than either of them. It was large and bulky, with a strange logo on it that they didn't recognize. That didn't matter to them though; what did matter was the sheer size of the bomb. "It must be a very powerful one…" Miu muttered, guessing this by the size of it. At any rate, it was obvious that it had enough power to blow up the cruise ship.

"N-no kidding…" Kenichi replied, his body shaking every so slightly. He had just wanted to take Miu out and give her a present, but it was very clear to him that his plan had gone very far down the drain.

Miu took a step towards, trying to see if there were any exposed wires on the bomb that she could perhaps cut to try and keep said device from going off. Unfortunately, that didn't seem to be the case. She brought her thumb up to her mouth, lightly biting the tip of it as she thought things through.

"Maybe… maybe we can-," she began to say, only to come to a screeching halt halfway through her sentence. She felt her danger sense go off. Miu immediately responded to this by alerting Kenichi. "Watch out!" she cried as she moved in front of him and put up a hand in time to guard against a sudden thrusting arm.

"W-What?!" Kenichi sputtered out.

He would have said more if a strong, but feminine leg didn't suddenly lash out at him. He raised both arms to deflect the kick. He grunted; the kick was strong, more so than anything he's seen someone like Kisara do. Whoever the attacker was, the person was strong.

However, his eyes widened when he saw a fist fly at Miu's face, which the blond girl blocked. "Two attackers?!" he cried, noticing that the distance between him and Miu now was too much for a single person to attack them both at the exact same time.

Miu, however, was more surprised by the punch that she just narrowly avoided. "Zui Quan!" It meant Drunken Fist. And she's only encountered one user of the Drunken Fist style before.

The mysterious attackers continued in their assault, whoever was attacking Kenichi, launching a tirade of quick and powerful types of kicks. Kenichi, sensing the surprising if not downright scary amount of power in said kicks, opted to parry and dodge them rather than flat out block them. As for Miu's assailant, the attacker's assault was fast and furious.

Yet, at the same time, Kenichi recognized the style of Miu's attacker as well even as he avoided kick after powerful kick, however narrow his escape from pain was. "Protectors and sparks from the ground, that fighting style… it can't be…" he thought.

Then the attackers' assault lulled just a bit, enough for both of the Ryozanpaku teens to see their faces. "You!" Kenichi yelled.

At the sound of his voice, one of their attackers, the one that had gone after Miu, paused just a bit in her movements. "Hmm?" the attacker, a girl, said. It was none other than Li Raichi.

"Li Raichi?! What are you doing here?!" Kenichi asked. Then he got a look at Raichi's companion – Shizuru, though he didn't know her name – and then looked back at Raichi. "And who is she?!"

The two girls didn't let their guard down and for good reason as Kenichi's yells were loud enough to warrant the attention of some men in the area. Upon realizing this, Kenichi silently cursed himself for forgetting where he was at.

"Intruders! There's intruders!" they heard a man yell. This was followed by footsteps heading straight for their direction.

However, none of them moved as Kenichi and Miu recalled when Raichi had been after the Shinpaku Alliance. In their eyes, she and her unknown comrade were potential enemies. As for Raichi and Shizuru, they were merely confused by this new situation, Shizuru more than Raichi due to her not knowing Kenichi and Miu. "You're…" Raichi actually began to say, but then it was too late; some men had already shown up and spotted the four.

"Intruders!" he yelled again and from around the corner near him, a few more men appeared.

"Oh no…" Miu muttered as she and Kenichi prepared to fight. However, as the men approached, rather than Raichi and Shizuru help the men attack the Ryozanpaku teens, Raichi suddenly bent backwards, her right fist slamming right into the face of one man that had quickly closed the distance between them while Shizuru spun and ran in between two men before doing an impressive split kick, her feet striking their cheeks with enough force to knock them out on the spot since they had been completely caught off guard by it.

"It's been a while florist… no, Kenichi!" Raichi now said with a smile.

"W-Why are you fighting against those guys? Aren't you a part of YOMI?" Kenichi questioned.

A few more men chose that time to show up, but Raichi and Shizuru took them by surprise by running towards the corner they went around and nailing them with a quick and short combo of blows that brought the guys down. After that, both of the girls quickly made their way back to the Ryozanpaku duo.

"We were hired as bodyguards! And it wouldn't do to have the client blown up right?" Raichi said with a smile as she moved near Kenichi.

Kenichi smiled just a bit, realizing now that maybe Raichi and this other girl can help him and Miu out. "Okay, that makes sense, but who are you?" he asked Shizuru, who was standing in between him and Miu.

"Kamura Shizuru!" she replied quickly. "Though I don't know what's going on between you two and Raichi, we shouldn't let our guard down yet! More men are coming!" she replied quickly as the ruckus they were making was gaining more and more attention.

Sure enough, from just about every way in and out of the large room they were in, men flooded in, all of them looking ready and willing to take them down. "W-Whoa, that's a lot of guys!" Kenichi yelped in fright a bit. The sudden turn that this situation was taking was starting to wear down his nerves.

"As long as we work as a group and cover each other's backs, we'll be fine!" Shizuru said as she charged at a small group of men. Though she was mainly a kicker, she proceeded to show considerable arm strength by suddenly punching the man at the forefront of the group, said attack causing the man to stagger back into a few of the others. Since they were running, this sudden stagger caused them to stumble over each other a bit.

However, not all of them were felled by this and one managed to move in on Shizuru, attempting to grapple her, but Shizuru gave him a swift kick to the chin. The sound of the man's jaw fracturing could be heard throughout the room despite the noise the rushing guards were making.

"She's right!" Miu said as she too turned to face a group of guards and performed a strong punch right into one of the men's nose, breaking it. "For now, we can trust them! This current fight is more important!" she said.

"A-Alright then!" Kenichi shot back as he grabbed one guy by the arm and shoulder tossed him. Right before the man could hit the ground, Raichi delivered a punch to his face, the momentum of Kenichi's toss merely adding to this. The man was knocked out instantly and though Raichi's attack did throw off the shoulder toss just a bit, the judo move still had the effect of slamming the unconscious man into the floor with enough force to ensure he'd be out like a light even longer.

"Zui Quan, eh?!" one guard said, "regardless of your martial arts style, it is no match for the Lucha Libre taught to us directly by Diego-sama!" he yelled. He then signaled several of his men, who promptly turned their backs on the newly allied group of Miu, Kenichi, Raichi, and Shizuru and performed a jumping attack, flying through the air now in an attempt to squash the group under them.

"Diego Tick Flying Bomb Attack!" all of the men cried out.

All of them were aiming for Raichi, who was not only the closest target available, but also had her back exposed to them, leaving the Zui Quan user vulnerable.

"Raichi!" Shizuru cried out in warning and concern while still kicking and punching her way through the seemingly never ending swarm of guards. She swore under her breath.

But, much to her surprise, Raichi was saved from impending pain with a single move. "Haigeki!" Kenichi yelled as he rushed to Raichi's aid, jumping and slamming his right shoulder into one of the men. The power of his strike combined with the man's closeness to the others midflight caused him to crash into the others, knocking them all away in one fell swoop.

Kenichi wasn't done just yet though. Three of the men managed to recover while still airborne and forced themselves to land just a little unceremoniously on the floor. Kenichi used this to his advantage by grabbing one of them by the back of the head and kneeing him hard in the face. The guy had only begun to fall before Kenichi quickly moved onto the next one, delivering a strong left punch to the stomach. The second man doubled over from the blow and Kenichi shot past him to the final man, who attempted to punch him, only for the Ryozanpaku disciple to not only dodge the attack, but also proceed to trip him up and shoulder toss him.

"W-whoa…" Shizuru muttered as she watched all of this. "He's pretty good…"

Raichi also chose to comment on Kenichi's skills even as she immediately got back into the groove of things by lashing out at more guards approaching. "Wow! Your skills are even better than before!" she said with a smile as Kenichi, who now seemed to be guarding her back, activated his Seikuken to deal with the incoming assaults of several men.

While Kenichi and Raichi more or less fought alongside each other, Miu did the same with Shizuru. The two buxom girls have managed to find a good team style that suited them, Miu focusing mainly on punches to take down the guards, one at a time. Shizuru, in contrast, covered Miu's back, using kicks in a variety of ways that mainly focused on hitting as many opponents as possible. Given that both of them, having been raised in martial arts their whole lives, covering each other's backs as well as any blind spots that appeared were worries that they definitely didn't have.

"That guy… Raichi told me about her fight with him. Was he holding back against her?" Shizuru asked in a shockingly casual tone of voice despite the fighting.

"No, Kenichi has improved a lot since they fought. It's really amazing," Miu said with a smile even as she ducked under the arm of one guard before retaliating with a powerful thrust punch to the chest.

"Not only that…" Miu began, piquing Shizuru's interest even more. Miu's smile grew considerably as she eyed Kenichi peripherally, her eyes full of warmth. "His true power comes out whenever he's protecting people. That's Shirahama Kenichi."

While all of this went on, Bob was currently trying to keep the shock from showing on his face too much. The reason why was simple. For the several minutes in the ring, rather than fight it out like he was expecting, Kensei and Renka seemed to be arguing over Kensei wearing one of the masks that had come with the letter of challenge. The Ma team seemed to be completely oblivious to the stares of both the Diego/Rachel tag team and the audience.

"What… the… fuck…?" Bob muttered under his breath.

Eventually, the Ma team seemed to stop messing around and the announcer finally began the match, much to the now revitalized excitement of the audience and nervousness of Bob, somehow knowing that something bad is going to happen. It didn't help when the announcer informed them of the rules: aside from fighting until the other team is unable to fight anymore, there were no rules. And since this was a tag match, it was entirely possible for one of the disciples in this match to be facing off against an elite master. The seriousness of this was definitely not lost on Bob.

He snapped out of his thoughts upon realizing just who was facing off against who first. "Oh… shit…"

In the ring stood Renka and none other than Diego Carlo, the Smiling Fist himself. Glancing at Renka, Bob could see that she was even more worried than he was and for good reason; she may be good, but Diego was in a whole other league. Still, for her to not tag out right then and there just went to show everyone how courageous she was.

And she then went on to prove she was braver than everyone already thought by doing the one thing they all least likely expected: she charged straight at Diego. The big man himself didn't bother to move, seemingly ready to just let Renka hit him.

That turned out to be a ruse, for just as Renka was about to make contact with her balled up fists, Diego suddenly disappeared from in front of her and reappeared right behind her. "W-What?!" Renka thought, shocked by his speed.

"Whoa…" Bob muttered.

Kensei merely watched from behind the ropes, eying this without the slightest hint of any emotion.

Renka forced herself to a stop before turning around and charging once again at the Yami member. She unleashed a vicious punch at Diego's face, but the Luchador dodged once more, tilting his head back just enough to avoid it. Renka gritted her teeth before quickly moving behind Diego and throwing a kick at his right arm, which he also avoided. To add insult to injury, Diego began to casually stretch as Renka, angered by her failed hits so far, practically danced all around him, tossing one attack after another in vain.

This assault continued for nearly a whole minute before Renka jumped back to her side of the ring, slightly tired from her assault. Diego, for his part, did the same thing. "Ho ho, looks like my warm up is finally over!" he said, his permanent smile actually getting just a bit wider.

"Damn it," Renka muttered as she slung an arm over the rope in contemplation of what to do next. But the second she did so, she felt her hand get smacked. Looking over the ropes, she saw that her father had just tagged her out and himself in.

Kensei had a bit of a smile on his face. He sighed. "Renka, you sometimes just can't be helped. He's been down the road of martial arts for quite some time before joining Yami. This might as well be an untrained junior fighting against an experience senior," he said before motioning for Renka to get out of the ring.

The girl grumbled just a bit, but did as directed. Kensei now entered the ring. "Now then… are you ready, Smiling Fist?" he questioned.

Diego merely laughed in response. "My Lucha Libre is the strongest in the world! This ship shall be the demise of a thousand years of Chinese martial arts!" However, he began to clap his hands. "But before we get on with the destruction of Chinese martial arts, let's show some respect to this fleeting dark image of it! Everyone, clap with me!" he said to the audience.

The audience enthusiastically did as they were told. At this, both Bob and Renka shared a look of pure annoyance, if not flat out anger. "Fuck is wrong with these guys?" the former thought.

Renka gripped the ropes tightly. "Hmph! Who would get provoked by that?! Papa is a Sei martial artist!" she thought, just wondering if this was just some kind of ploy.

She found her first thought to be proven very wrong. "Quit it! You're all being very rude!" he yelled at the audience.

Just as quick as this occurred, Kensei pointed at Diego, his face showing a not too small amount of indignation. "I shall not let this disgrace go lightly! Prepare yourself, Smiling Fist!" he said.

And without any more forewarning, Kensei charged right at Diego, fists extended. He covered the distance between themselves faster than the eye could ever blink and sure enough, the Chinese kempo master executed his first attack. "Panpu Po Ken!" he exclaimed as he slammed his extended right fist directly into Diego's abdomen. The attack was so strong that it generated a small shockwave that shock the whole room, making the audience stop their clapping and jeering at his expense while Renka, Bob, and Rachel nearly lost their balance due to their proximity to the ring.

"A direct hit!" Renka and Bob thought, though both were confused greatly. "Howe come he didn't dodge?"

Kensei himself seemed to realize that something felt wrong as well. Rachel, from her side of the ring, smiled in glee, clearly knowing something that the three of them didn't.

Diego then merely stomped his foot into the mat and inhaled deeply before finally responding to Kensei's attack. Then he exhaled with a force that was undoubtedly superhuman, the action sending Kensei skidding back across the mat all the way back to his corner.

"W-What?!" Renka and Bob thought, trying to comprehend what just happened.

Diego laughed, ignoring that a bit of blood was spilling out from his mouth, showcasing that the attack did indeed hurt him to an extent. "This is the wonders of my defense!" He took a quick second to wipe away the blood from his mouth. "Pro wrestling isn't about who is the strongest, but about who is the most amazing!" he said as his words would explain something to his opponent and everyone else.

Amazingly enough, it appeared that his words did make sense to Kensei. "I see. So that's how it is…" he said under his breath.

Renka and Bob, though didn't seem to get it. "What is going on? How is that masked bastard still standing?" Bob wondered. He may not know the full limits of elite masters such as Kensei, but even then he could tell that the failed attack just now was very powerful. For Diego to seemingly shrug it off so casually was something that he wasn't comprehending, mainly because it did do damage, but he was just ignoring. "No way he could just ignore that…"

But Diego did. "So, it's time for my hit!" He ran straight past Kensei and towards the ropes. Kensei kept up a defensive position, sensing that this wasn't going to be good. Diego turned and his back crashed against the ropes, said objects stretching due to the pressure he was putting them under. "Even jokingly, the people who are heroes of Ryozanpaku, if they directly avoid a challenge, what will happen to their pride as a martial artist?!" The luchador questioned even as he now launched himself from the ropes right at his opponent.

The crowd watched in anticipation, wondering how Kensei will respond to this incoming attack. Much to their surprise, Kensei moved in to meet the attack head on. They gaped as Diego promptly snagged Kensei's head in a headlock with his left arm. "Well, this is a tight spot I'm in…" Kensei muttered as he prepared to withstand whatever it is Diego had planned for him.

However, what happened next was something that he certainly wasn't expecting. Keeping a tight hold on him, Diego leapt high into the air, kneeing the Ryozanpaku master right in the gut, making him double over even while airborne. But the Yami member didn't stop there, following this attack by loosening his grip on Kensei enough to allow for a haymaker to the side, then a fierce uppercut before finally masterfully maneuvering himself behind Kensei in a suplex hold. It was at this time that the two had reached the height of their jump and began to fall, with Diego turning them upside down so that their heads will be the first things to make contact with the ring below when they land.

"Whoa," was the general thought of everyone present. The movements just displayed were so fast that only Renka and Bob were actually able to see them and even then they barely counted as blurs. Diego truly was worthy of being in Yami.

"Guh! He said this was only going to be one attack!" Kensei thought, pain flashing through his midsection a bit. "This must be one of those chain attacks that I have heard of!" He struggled to break the hold Diego had on him, but this was proving to be a difficult feat to accomplish. His only solace was that the ring floor was made out of wood to cushion the blow.

As if reading his mind, Diego laughed. "By the way, the floor's contents are multiple structured ceramics," he said.

Kensei's eyes widened, now knowing that his landing wasn't going to be as simple to shrug off as he thought it would be a second ago. He struggled once more to break free of Diego's grasp with renewed vigor. A second later, he managed to do so, but Diego merely switched from a suplex hold to a bit more creative one, using his right hand to grasp Kensei's right arm while twisting his left leg around Kensei's other arm. Things were still looking bleak for Kensei it seemed.

"No! I don't think he'll break free!" Renka thought in worry. She was so worried about the situation her father was in that she failed to take notice of what was going on around her until it was too late.

"Do you know about an outside brawl?" During the struggle between Kensei and Diego, Rachel took the time to sneak from her side of the ring to Renka's side. More specifically, right behind said girl.

The Chinese girl's eyes widened as she turned to face Rachel, but she was too slow in doing so and Rachel wrapped her right hand around Renka's throat while using her entire left arm to wrap around the girl's considerable chest, locking her left hand onto her right forearm. Renka was now in a chokehold.

"Urk!" Renka got out as oxygen was now being deprived from her.

"You're not used to this sort of fight?" Rachel said while giggling. And then without further pretense, Rachel bent over backwards and slammed Renka into the hard floor. "Rachel Suplex!"

At the same time, Diego had managed to slam Kensei into the ring's floor. "Diego Tick Diver!" he called out gleefully as Kensei hit the mat hard headfirst. The sheer power of the move was so great that the Ryozanpaku master's head actually went right through the mat.

"What the-?!" Bob cried out from the sidelines. He figured that Kensei would have unfortunately been taken down by the hit, but he, like Renka, definitely hadn't suspect Rachel to just barge on over to their side of the ring and pull the stunt she just did now. Anger now entered his mind as his shock gave way. He began to make his way towards Rachel, intent on giving her a taste of her own medicine by kicking her when she isn't expecting it.

But as soon as he was about to do this, he and the audience was treated to the surprise of Renka getting up from the ground and surprising Rachel with a fierce kick to the top of her head. "That hurt! Just what do you think you're doing?!" she yelled as Rachel staggered back from the hit.

The audience 'whoa'ed at this sudden recovery and their shock grew when they heard a sound coming from the ring. Bob and them turned their heads in time to see Kensei roll over, pulling his head out of the mat, a pained expression on his face to show that it did hurt, but clearly not enough to count him out.

He took his hat off, showing that his balding head was a bit bruised and scratched from Diego's attack just now. "Really," he began, his voice bordering the line between calm and angered, "my hat's lost its shape!" he said as he patted his hat to restore it to its previous condition.

Bob stared, a little slack-jawed before finally smirking a bit. "Well shit, I guess I was worried over nothing," he thought.

Diego and Rachel had their own reactions. The former scratched his chin in apparent amusement. "You're still alive…" The Smiling Fist almost seemed to be curious as to how such a thing was possible.

"Amazing! He survived the maestro's technique…" Rachel said even as Renka began to assault her, forcing the YOMI member into a defensive position.

The audience too was amazed at what was going on. A part of them actually began to applaud and cheer on the Ma duo, much to the surprise and annoyance of Rachel who focused on them as well.

Bob saw this and grinned. "Yeah, that's right, bitch. You and your master aren't the only one that can do something cool too…" he thought.

Renka smirked playfully and backed off on her assault for a moment. She giggled. "Pro wrestling was competition about who is the most amazing, isn't it?" she asked rhetorically.

Kensei too seemed to be enjoying this. He put his hat back on and clenched his right hand. "Dare I stop you… it's probably best not to try and take one more of my attacks!" he warned Diego.

Diego leaned forward a bit as if to contemplate this turnabout. "It certainly seems that way," he said after the smallest amount of hesitation.

The audience and Bob now held their breath. It looks like this battle was going to become much more serious.

Back with Kenichi, Miu, Raichi, and Shizuru, the quartet found themselves slowly but surely being overwhelmed. The sheer number of guards continuing to rush them combined with the considerable level of power and skill they possessed was finally beginning to take its toll on their stamina. And so, they felt it best to pull a strategic retreat, making their way across the room and up the nearby stairs, which led to a different room where they could hopefully catch their breath for a few moments. However, the guards weren't making this easy for them.

"Guh! There's too many of them!" Miu said as she gave one of the guards a strong kick to the jaw, seemingly unmindful of the fact that she was wearing a skirt and therefore giving the other men a bit of a peek. Not that she or them would notice such a thing in this kind of situation.

Raichi and Shizuru were leaping over some of the men to get further up the stairs, the former delivering a punch to the midsection of one while the latter flipped over one of the other nearby guards and kicked him hard in the back once she landed. Shizuru's attack caused the kicked man to go careening forward into several other men, knocking them all down the steps.

Kenichi, who was still near the bottom of the stairs, had his hands a bit more full than the girls due to most of the guards being in the general area. He suppressed the urge to swear as he deflected the attempted punch of one guard with his right hand while using his left to backhand another. "No kidding!" he yelled over the loud sounds of their struggles.

He fought his way as much as he could through the crowd of guards before finally having enough room to leap up a flight of stairs without having to worry about the guards grabbing him. Miu and Shizuru had already reached the top and were opening the door. "Hurry!" Shizuru cried out as she and Miu ran through.

"R-Right!" Kenichi said as he made a break for it.

Raichi too also picked up her pace, but not before jumping at a guard still nearing the top of the steps and wrapping her legs around him. Before he could respond, the young girl heaved and then flipped, using her legs to fling the man towards the door.

"W-What are you doing?!" Kenichi exclaimed as he ran and quickly caught up with her, who had proceeded to drag the now disoriented man with her.

"To question him! Maybe he can tell us what's going on this ship!" she replied, not slowing down in her running speed.

Kenichi blinked a few times in surprise, but then decided she had a good point and they both ran right through the open door, emerging onto a side strip of the ship, a walking area. Kenichi slammed the door and barred it shut as soon as he made it through the door. He sighed in relief. "Glad that's over…"

The girls shared his relief. "Yeah," Shizuru agreed.

Then said girl looked out to the ocean and froze. She pointed. "What is that?"

They all immediately looked in the direction the girl pointed in and froze as well. "Those are ships…" Kenichi said, perplexed. Barely within eyesight were six cruise ships almost perfectly lined up side by side, separated by roughly a few hundred meters apart at the least. They merely seemed to be anchored there, not moving from position. Kenichi shivered; the ships gave him a bit of the creeps, as if something bad was going to happen. Needless to say, he didn't like this feeling one bit.

"A fleet…" Miu muttered.

Then they head a groan from behind them. The guard that Raichi had dragged along, a tall well-built young man with short light blond hair and wearing the standard black uniform and sunglasses the other guards wore, finally began to recover from the disorienting hit that Raichi had hit him barely a moment ago. "What the hell hit m-?" he began to say as he shook his head.

He didn't finish. This was due to Shizuru landing a fierce kick to the right side of his face while Miu struck him with a punch on the other side of it. He yelled out in pain and stumbled badly from the surprise blows, only for Miu to place him in a sudden chokehold while Shizuru grabbed him from the front by the scruff of his uniform.

"What are those ships?" Miu demanded hotly, her voice promising pain if she didn't get answers.

"Tell us if you still want to be able to eat food right," Shizuru growled out.

Kenichi and Raichi sweat dropped. "They sure synchronize pretty well…" they both muttered.

The man grimaced a bit only for his pained expression to be replaced with a small smirk. He even chuckled despite his current predicament. "Fine. It doesn't matter after all; you're all gonna die one way or the other," he said in as steady a voice he could manage with Miu's arm wrapped tightly around his throat. "The people of that fleet are here to enjoy watching this… this is the true show!"

The quartet froze ever so slightly as they digested this as it all came together for them. The bomb on this ship was pretty much guaranteed to explode, killing all who are aboard. The fight between the masters and disciples inside was simply to keep the Mas and Bob occupied from stopping said bomb. And the fleet they just spotted was here to watch the fireworks.

Kenichi's fists began to tremble, catching the attention of the girls. "Kenichi?" Miu asked, concerned.

"A murder show…" he muttered harshly, taking the girls by surprise. "One Shadow Nine Fists, Diego Carlo… is this your entertainment?!"

The girls looked at him, all of them just as angered as he was, though they tried not to show it. "Despicable…" Shizuru said.

Kenichi slammed his right fist into his open left hand, startling the girls yet again. "This… this is too much. There's no way we can just let this happen!" he exclaimed, his eyes burning with a determination that they have never seen before.

"Kenichi…" Miu smiled softly, amazed at how determined Kenichi was now. Whether or not he realized it himself, ever since the Juken Club came into the picture and told them all of their situation, Kenichi has very, very slowly started to become more of a determined martial artist, what the Juken Club having told him of what Sohaku and F had done angering and disgusting the sensitive yet righteous Ryozanpaku disciple.

Raichi and Shizuru merely looked at him with a smile. "Kenichi…" the former thought, seemingly unaware of her cheeks gaining a slightly red tint to them.

Shizuru sport a small smile as well. "This guy… he's pretty cool," she thought.

However, the somewhat touching moment was killed when the guard chuckled. "You plan to stop the bomb? You out of your mind?" he said.

They all immediately focused their attention on him, glaring. "Shut up, you," Shizuru said as she stood up and reared back her foot to deliver a knock out kick.

A second later, she let loose said kick. But much to her shock, when it connected, it connected with the man's raised arms. What shocked her about it was how hard his arms were. A pained expression crossed her face as she lightly jumped back and she swore as she raised her foot in pain. "Gah…"

"W-What?!" the others cried.

Suddenly, they all felt a release of Ki. It was large, easily around the level of an expert. But what really grabbed their attention was the feel of it. It was dark, dense and above all carried a malevolent feel to it.

Kenichi and Shizuru recognized it immediately. "This feeling… it's just like Aya-san's!" he thought in shock, taking a cautious step back from the guard. Miu had let go of him and moved beside Kenichi while Raichi also did the same thing.

Shizuru gaped at the guard, who now began to rise, keeping his arms crossed. "N-No way…"

The guard sighed. "Well, this was supposed to be kept secret for as long as possible, but there's no way I can just let myself get knocked out by you runts…"

His arms had changed a bit. From the forearms down to his hands, the form was different, bulkier and more muscular. The sleeves of his outfit had torn from the change in mass, showing that his skin was no longer that of a human, but instead seemed almost reptilian, dark blue scales coating his considerably more muscular arms. His hands were also noticeably larger as well, though his wrists actually seemed just a bit thinner than before, undoubtedly allowing for better movement. His fingers had also grown slightly in length and his nails had turned a pitch black and were now long and hard enough to count as claws.

More ripping sounds could be heard and the quartet looked downwards. The guard's feet seemed to be undergoing the same transformation. The boots and the bottom part of his pants tore apart, revealing his lower legs to be larger and a bit longer too, covered in the same scales as the arms. Like his fingers, his toes were a few inches longer than normal and the toenails had become hard and sharp.

The guard now uncrossed his arms and smirked, reveling a bit in the shocked expressions of the teens. He cracked his neck and gazed at Shizuru predatorily. "Alright then, you're first, you little bitch. I'll have you pay me back for that kick just now and with interest."

The quartet simply stood there stunned at this sudden change. "What is he?!" Raichi exclaimed. Beside her, Kenichi and Miu prepared for a fight, sweat beginning to break out on their foreheads.

Shizuru had yet to take up a fighting stance just yet, considerably more shocked than the other three. "You… you're a red feather?!"

Elsewhere, more specifically, Yami's base, the One Shadow stood alone in a room. It was large and pristine, devoid of anything save for the most advanced scientific technology currently around, several tables for scientists to work being centered around the room. Monitors could also be seen near the tables as well, the latter serving for scientists to take notes as they observed the monitors.

However, in the center of the wall farthest from the room's entrance was what the monitors were hooked up to. It was a huge incubation tank, big enough for people the size of men like Agaard and Diego to safely lie in without feeling cramped.

It was currently occupied, though none could see exactly who was in there due to the fog-like fluid in the tank. However, the One Shadow stared straight into it as though his vision of the person inside wasn't obscured by anything.

The reason why this was so was simple: he already knew who was in the tank.

The One Shadow wasn't usually one to be impressed, but he had to silently admit that once again the power of the red feathers surely was beyond the understanding of most people. He did have a few doubts as to how this would go, but things were moving along quite fast, more so than he had anticipated. And it was all thanks to Souichiro's right eye. Then again, to say the right eye was Souichiro's would perhaps be a little wrong.

"Hmm." Despite how large the room was and how soft his voice was at the moment, it still echoed across the area to show just how empty the room was right now.

The One Shadow didn't exactly know what to make of this. For the past few days, the process he was observing had been moving along at a constant rate, yet recently it seemed to be accelerating. Not by much, but it definitely was noticeable.

He could tell because of the Ki. Ki flowing from the true warrior Susano and into the incubation tank. The rate at which it flowed had been a slow and steady stream, most likely due to the distance between Souichiro and the tank. The reason why Souichiro's Ki was flowing here in the first place was because of the connection both he and the tank had. Yet it seemed like the trickle of Ki was increasing and in doing so, seemed to grow darker and darker, more malevolent inside the tank. This was partially why the room was empty. None of the usual scientists Yami had at its disposal could bear working let alone simply being in the room; the Ki inside the incubation tank was immense, easily at the level of a master and still it grew with passing time.

The One Shadow was unaffected by the increasing Ki though. He was considerably stronger than most masters. This could be chalked up to both the training he underwent throughout his life, followed by the talent he had inherited from his father…

He snapped out of his thoughts and focused once more on the tank, trying to get his mind back on the Ki flow. "Interesting. It is undoubtedly coming from that boy, yet it continues to differ from his own Ki over time," he pondered aloud.

He took this as a sign that the process was nearly complete, something that he could even confirm with his eyes as he peered into the tank. He suppressed the small smile that wanted to appear on his face.

It looks like Sohaku would soon be joining Yami after all.

* * *

So what do you think guys? Suspenseful? Ha ha ha, well I try.

As you can see, I have yet to reveal how and why Shizuru is with Raichi in the first place. I know that I said I'd address that in this chapter, but a last second decision made me put it off due to the introduction of the shocking red feather guy.

And now with this chapter, I am slowly but surely approaching the climax of my fic. Granted, the ending of this fic is still quite a ways off as I still have more than few things I'd like to write for this, but just thought I should let you all know ahead of time.

And as stated in the intro AN, I start my new semester soon (within the next 2 days or so) and I don't know how it'll affect my time to write. It all ultimately comes down to how much of a homeworkload I'll have in addition to whether or not my new classes will make me feel lazy or just tired or something. That said, I will do my best to update relatively soon.

Anyways, thanks for reading. Hope you enjoyed it and don't hesitate to review away.


	23. Chapter 23

Man, talk about a little hectic lately. Though my classes aren't too bad, I have a small handful of essays to do in the near future along with some tests and all that other jazz. Doesn't help that I have to read like a chapter or two for every class every single week. As much as I love reading, reading for class can get a little tiresome to put mildly. I have a feeling that it'll be quite some time before I manage to post the next chapter. Just letting you all know now.

But enough of my semi-whining! Hope you enjoy this chapter!

Chapter 23

The quartet of Kenichi, Miu, Raichi, and Shizuru couldn't help but stand where they were, completely and utterly gobsmacked by this man. Miu and Raichi in particular were shocked more than the other two; it was their first time seeing a red feather's power and in the case of the latter girl, it was her first time ever even hearing of a red feather.

The red feather in question simply cracked his neck, ignoring their dumbstruck looks. And then he attacked.

As he had more or less promised just a moment ago, he charged directly at Shizuru, itching for some payback. His mutated legs, being stronger than they were normally, propelled him forward at a speed that made him seem like nothing more than a simple blur to them all. Shizuru could only widen her eyes and begin to bring up her arms to defend before the man was right in front of her. He feinted a punch towards her face, causing the girl to shift her arms there, only for him to then stop and use his other fist to punch her right in the stomach.

Shizuru's eyes widened more than they have ever done before, due to the brief, but excruciating pain she felt. The man's arms were stronger and moved faster than before. She went flying back and over the railing.

This definitely raised alarm amongst the remaining three. "Shizuru!" Raichi cried out. Then a split second later, she focused her attention on the one who caused this. "You-!" she yelled as she pounced at him.

But the red feather sensed her coming and with a grin, he spun around and took two big steps towards her, bringing up his right forearm to guard against the sudden punch Raichi threw. Raichi's expression of rage changed to one of pain as her fist made contact with the man's scales. If the girl also felt like screaming to signify just how badly she hurt her hand, she didn't get a chance to as the man promptly backhanded her with his other hand.

The blow nearly knocked Raichi unconscious due to the power behind it and she went sailing across the area and nearly over the rails opposite from where Shizuru was launched over. However, she was spared from going over said rails. "No!" Kenichi yelled as he ran and grabbed hold of Raichi's leg before she could go flying any further. He held onto the rails with a vice grip and in doing so, managed to halt Raichi's flight. The girl slumped against the wall a bit as Kenichi quickly hoisted her back up.

"Raichi-san?! You alright?!" he nearly yelled into her face as she shook her. Raichi responded to this by groaning, disoriented badly from the blow just now, but she was beginning to shake it off.

The red feather merely snorted. "Well, shit," he muttered. He hadn't expected the boy to be quick enough to do that.

He was snapped out of his thoughts when Miu suddenly appeared in front of him, her leg about to make contact with his chest. The man was forced to sidestep the attack as it was far too close for him to guards with his arms or legs, even if their strength and speed were enhanced. "Tch, you're next, you little bim-," he began, only to receive a kick to his back.

He stumbled forward, in slight pain and surprise. "What?!" He whirled around to see none other than Shizuru standing just a foot or two away from where he had just stood. The girl was panting slightly.

"You can't get rid of me that easily," she said with a smirk. Though she appeared confident on the outside, inside her mind, she was feeling a more than a little nervous. The blow had nearly done to her what it had done to Raichi, though Shizuru prided herself on being a little more resilient than her comrade. It was also a sign of considerably luck that when she went flying over the rails and started to fall, she managed to grab hold of some cables that she was able to quickly climb to get back up here.

The man snarled, cracking his knuckles eagerly. "Is that so…?" He began to take a step towards Shizuru, and by extension, Miu who was standing next to said girl, but stopped when he heard Raichi begin to stir. Looking quickly over his shoulder, he saw the girl begin to fully regain consciousness and stand. Kenichi was beginning to stand as well, his smile at Raichi being alright being replaced with one of determination as he glared at the man now.

The man sighed before grinning confidently. The grin only widened a bit more when Raichi now stood up to her full height and glared at him as well. He turned slightly so that his left side was facing Miu and Shizuru while his right side was being exposed to Kenichi and Raichi. He raised both arms and did a come-on hither. "Alright then," he said, "let's just see what you four got."

Raichi and Kenichi bristled, the former due to the man's cockiness while the later was enraged a bit by how assured this man appeared to be in his victory, which would mean that if he did win, they wouldn't have a chance to stop the bomb from going off. Miu and Shizuru were also a little angry at the man's confidence, but they didn't let it show.

They all stayed completely motionless for what seemed like hours. And then they all moved.

Kenichi was surprisingly the first to get in range of the man first. He started things off with a quick karate chop to the man's chest, but said person moved in on Kencihi, the sudden closing of distance between them causing the attack to miss. Kenichi's eyes widened as he then tried to guard, but it was obvious to him that it wasn't going to work. And he was right as the man slammed his right elbow into Kenichi's still exposed midsection, his attack taking all of the air right out of the Ryozanpaku teen.

But it looked like Kenichi was growing more and more determined with every passing day even if he didn't show it. Before he could go skidding back from the blow, he managed to grab hold of the man's elbow with both hands and began to apply as much pressure as possible.

The man, though surprised Kenichi was able to do this, snickered. "You really think squeezing is going t-?" he began only to get cut off when Raichi took this chance to deliver a strong kick to the man's side. "Gah!"

"That's payback!" Raichi exclaimed. The kick made the man stagger and Kenichi let go and now both him and Richi attempted to double team him, Kenichi now trying to land a roundhouse kick while Raichi aimed to punch him hard in the face.

Unfortunately, the red feather recovered faster than expected and blocked both attacks with his arms, causing the duo to feel pain in the limbs that just came into contact with his scales. Kenichi and Raichi reacted naturally to this and grimaced in pain, lightly jumping back from him.

It was at this time that Miu and Shizuru made their move, having deliberately gone slowly in order to take advantage of this sort of situation. Both once more showed off an impressive amount of synchronization by leaping into the air and kicking him right in the back, Miu with her right foot and Shizuru with her left.

The man cried out in pain and stumbled forward, only to end up getting knocked back now as Kenichi and Raichi both punched him in the stomach, making him double over in the process. "We can win this!" Kenichi thought, "even if he is stronger than us, we still have the advantage in numbers! And his skills aren't as great as his power too!"

The other girls seemed to share his thoughts too. "His red feather ability may be a literal pain, but our fighting skills are greater than his," Shizuru thought calmly, though there was a bit of a smirk on her face as she proceeded to rush the man and deliver a knee to his face while he was still a little doubled over. The smirk gave way to a pained expression as he stood up to his full height suddenly and blocked her knee with his own. Apparently, the hard scales extend to his knees as well.

Shizuru leapt back and ducked under a retaliation blow from the man. After the attack missed, she quickly stood up and delivered a quick uppercut to his jaw, a definitive break from her usual fighting style. Though punches weren't her main form of attack, they weren't entirely weak either. This was shown through the punch just now by actually making the red feather stagger back, disoriented. Shizuru now switched back to her favored attack method and jumped forward, kicking the man straight in the chest, knocking him back even further, specifically towards Kenichi and Raichi. Miu too had quickly moved next to them.

Shizuru winced in near sympathy for the man. As soon as he was within reach of those three, he was going to be in for a world of hurt. She winced as she moved forward as well, her knee aching from the failed attack. "Provided he doesn't block anymore, that it…" she muttered.

Meanwhile, back in the city, something was amiss. Namely, Takeda and Ukita. The two friends were currently patrolling the city as they were told to do. Ever since the Juken Club had started doing this, some members of the Shinpaku Alliance had taken to doing it too in order to make sure YOMI didn't have any plans that could potentially hurt others. They were also doing patrol to keep on the look out for Souichiro.

The two friends had their own personal take on this. "Crap, why do we have to do this? It's not like those YOMI guys are gonna try anything now, right?" Ukita muttered, running a hand through his hair in annoyance.

Takeda chuckled. "Well, it's just how things go, you know? Besides, if they do try something now, we can take them out now instead of waiting still." Clearly, his light-hearted attitude still showed through despite all that he and the other members of the Shinpaku Alliance have heard about the situation with the Juken Club. It still boggled his mind at how powerful Souichiro still was even though he has yet to see said person in action.

Ukita sighed. "I guess, but still I think we can do more than just walking around. I mean, what the hell are the odds of us walking into someone like them?"

As soon as those words left his mouth, a small shiver ran down the spines of both him and Takeda. They tried not to show it though. Takeda's usual smile got a bit wider. "Meh, I guess so. Like you said, what are the odds?"

At that exact moment, they were passing by a spot where taxis drop off people. And it just so happened that this was the case right now. A taxi came to a stop just a few yards away of where Takeda and Ukita were walking.

The taxi driver looked somewhat sad. "Why?" he thought, comical tears running down his face, "I went from being a taxi driver to being a waiter, got fired after some blond guy with an eye patch hustles me for food, and now I'm back to being a taxi driver again. And I still get the crazy guys as customers!" he thought. The only good thing was that this time around there didn't appear to be anyone else getting ready to leap in front of the taxi to flag him or anything.

He turned around to face his current customer. He gulped slightly. "We're here," he said in as straight a voice as he could manage.

His customer, a tall, very well built man in his early twenties, just nodded. He was currently dressed in casual black shoes, black jeans, and a dark red short sleeved shirt with a logo on it that the taxi driver couldn't recognize. The man also had white hair combed back to reveal that parts of it were actually black too. He had a bit of a stubble going on as well. And he was smoking. "Hmm?" the man said. He had sort of drifted off in thought on the trip here. And it had been a bit of a long one too.

The man then got out of the taxi. "Thanks old man. Keep the change," he said as he tossed some bills at the taxi driver. He took a puff of his cigarette. "Damn Mitsuomi, sending me all the way here so sudden. He could have at least given me more time to stock up on some cigs," he muttered as he placed his right hand in his pocket and felt that his cigarette package was nearly empty. He made a mental note to find a convenience store around here to buy more. He took a brief second to just stand where he was, blowing out some smoke. "Alright. Time to mo-," he began before someone bumped into him.

The taxi driver took one look at who bumped into his now former customer and immediately revved up the taxi and drove off as fast as he could without getting pulled over for speeding.

Speaking of his former customer, he looked annoyed. "Hey, watch where you're going, punk," he said.

The person that had bumped into him was none other than Ukita, who had been so engrossed in talking to Takeda that he hadn't noticed this yet. But the guy's comment sure got his attention. "What?" he growled, angry.

Takeda stopped and placed a hand on his shoulder. "Whoa, calm down man." He turned towards who Ukita bumped into. "Sorry about that."

The man just raised an eyebrow, looking at Takeda's hair. He took a quick puff before blowing out the smoke. "What's with the hair? A freak accident with Downey softner or something?" he asked.

This prompted Ukita's anger to disappear and now the teen found himself clamping a hand over his mouth to keep from laughing. Takeda looked less than chipper now. "What?!"

"Oi, oi, calm down, kid," the guy said, raising his right hand and delivering a light hearted chop to Takeda's head. Of course, it was light heated by his standards; by Takeda's standards, it was fast and strong, having struck him before he could even see his hand move and strong enough to disorient him.

Takeda stumbled back a few steps, clutching his head. "Uh, feels like Dai-sensei just hit me!" he thought, "just who is this guy!"

Ukita for his part, looked just as shocked as Takeda felt. "Whoa, what the hell?!"

The man just turned away from them. "Anyways, I'm outta here. Got to do a little favor for a buddy of mine," he said, giving the two a two fingered salute before walking off.

"H-Hey, wait! Who are you?" Ukita and Takeda yelled in unison after the man.

The guy paused briefly in his steps, took another drag of his cigarette and then craned his head to get a look at them. "Name's Bunshichi."

As this went on, elsewhere in the city, Makoto was walking downtown, a few bags of groceries in her hands. The girl, dressed in a simple blouse and jeans, sighed. Lately, it just seemed like Souichiro was feeling really distant from her and others. Ever since that Chikage girl first showed up, the true warrior had appeared distracted and lost in thought. It sort of worried Makoto.

She sighed. "Well, I guess there's nothing I can do about it right now," she muttered, eventually deciding that worrying about it isn't going to make a change; talking with Souichiro about whatever is bugging him will.

She continued to walk down the street until she spotted a passing taxi. Figuring it best to just take a taxi home, she raised her left arm after moving the bags she carried with it to her right hand, hoping the taxi driver would see her trying to hail him. She was uncertain if he would; the taxi seemed to be going pretty fast.

But her worry was unnecessary for the taxi driver did indeed see her and slowly pulled over. "Hi," she said as the taxi came to a stop and she quickly got in, careful with the bags she had as some of the things in there were a little on the fragile side.

She didn't notice the taxi driver sigh in relief. "Thank God…" he muttered.

"What?" Makoto asked, having slightly heard him.

"Ah, nothing," he said in response, "where to, miss?"

Makoto gave her the address for her street and the taxi driver nodded before driving off. She was a bit perplexed as to why the man was apparently humming a happy tune to himself. She had no idea that he was the one that had dropped off Bunshichi, and therefore was a bit wary of who else he'd be driving around.

The drive was carried out in relative silence, Makoto's thoughts being focused on Souichiro while the taxi driver was just happy to have a normal customer for once in a long while. Unfortunately, for the taxi driver anyway, this time of complete silence came to an end for as he made a right turn onto a street, Makoto's eyebrows perked up a bit as they began to pass by a burger joint and she saw the object of her thoughts walking just a little ways away from it. It would seem that he had just finished eating.

"Excuse me, can you pull over next to that guy over there?" Makoto asked, pointing at Souichiro.

The taxi driver knew immediately who she was talking about because the distance between the taxi and the true warrior Susano was closing enough for him to feel Souichiro's Ki. It was miracle he hadn't driven off the road in utter fright.

"Uh, are you sure, miss?" he asked, praying that he had simply misheard.

"Yeah, just pull over real quick, please," she said.

The taxi driver once more began to cry comically, but complied.

When he pulled up next to Souichiro, said teen heard the running engine and paused mid-step. He craned his head to see who it was. He blinked once in surprise when he saw Makoto lean out the window of the taxi. "Makoto?"

Makoto smiled a bit. "Hi, Souichiro-kun. You just eat?" she asked, making a bit of small talk.

Souichiro turned around all the way, facing her. "Yeah. Just had me a few burgers. Pretty good stuff."

Makoto nodded. "Oh okay." She then fell silent, trying to think of what to say next. She really just wanted to ask him what was bugging him, but that would seem too sudden and too blunt. So she decided to try a different approach.

"You want a ride?" she asked suddenly, "it must be a bit tiring for you to walk back home."

Souichiro shrugged. "Not really," he replied. With the amount of stamina he had, a walk around the city didn't even remotely tax him.

Makoto felt like slamming her palm into her face. It completely slipped her mind at how much stamina Souichiro had. But she wasn't about to give up just yet. "You sure?"

Souichiro just stared at her. Something was up, that much he could tell. "Something wrong?" he asked.

Makoto began to fluster a bit, taken aback by the sudden question. "N-No!" she replied quickly. Then she did something that Souichiron honestly couldn't have expected of the girl: she fiddled her fingers together, almost shyly. It was something that he had never thought a relatively confident girl like Makoto would ever do.

Souichiro blinked in surprise, both at the suddenness of Makoto's action and at himself because he found it kind of cute. Mainly because it was such a far cry from what he usually sees of girls, especially the ones from Todo. "…Okay, seriously, is there something wrong?" he asked a moment later after getting over the sight, his voice now showing his confusion.

Makoto stopped with the finger fiddling and glanced back at him. "Well…. It's just… you've seemed sort of… distant…" she said slowly, trying to think of a better way to phrase it, but being unable too.

Souichiro blinked a bit rapidly at that, his head craning back as he thought. "Really?"

Makoto nodded. "Yeah, and to be frank, it's kind of worrying me."

Souichiro looked as apologetic as his seemingly neutral facial expression would allow right now. "Sorry about that," he said to her.

Makoto sighed. "Don't be. It's just that… you think it'd be possible for you to talk about it with someone?" she asked. Her expression now seemed to start looking a little hopeful. "Like me?"

The taxi driver, hearing this, suddenly seemed to realize where this was going and cringed. Neither Souichiro or Makoto noticed. In the case of the latter, he shifted his posture a bit as he thought. "It's… a nice offer, but I don't think talking about anything is going to do me any real good in the long run."

Makoto once again decided to prove her determination. She stared directly into Souichiro's eyes as she spoke. "You won't know until you try, right?" she said rather rhetorically.

Souichiro and Makoto had a bit of staring contest at that moment, trying to see who backed down first. A few minutes, amazingly Souichiro was the one to blink and sigh. "You… you're not gonna back down from this, are you?" he muttered, though doing so loudly enough for the girl to hear him clearly.

A small smile appeared on Makoto's face, happy that she is now getting somewhere. "Yeah, pretty much," she replied. The taxi driver once more proceeded to cry comically, now knowing for sure how this was going to turn out. He silently prayed to God that nothing crazy would happen within the next several moments or so.

Souichiro sighed once again. "Fine. It's your win," he said. He sounded unhappy, but at the same time, if one listened closely enough, he sounded sort of relieved too.

Makoto smiled. She scooted over from the window to the other side of the back of the taxi. "Come on, get in. We can talk on my home."

The true warrior raised an eyebrow, but complied with the girl's request. When he opened the door and sat down next to Makoto, the back of the taxi seemed to almost immediately sink, making the back bumper of the vehicle nearly touch the asphalt of the road now. It couldn't fully support Souichiro's insane Ki.

This had the effect of making a bit of a bounce, causing Makoto to accidently lean in towards Souichiro's chest. Upon placing a hand upon said chest to steady herself, the girl immediately blushed and righted herself. "Sorry," Souichiro muttered.

"I-It's alright," Makoto replied, her face red.

However, Souichiro's attention was then diverted to the taxi driver who had made a sound akin to a whimper when Souichiro got in. Upon looking at the taxi driver, his eyes visibly widened. "You?!" Souichiro nearly exclaimed.

The taxi driver nearly jumped out of his own skin. He slowly turned to look at Souichiro, sweating badly. "Do…. Do I k-know you?" he asked in a trembling voice.

At that, Souichiro paused. It wouldn't exactly do to respond with 'Yeah, I do. I'm the guy that hustled you for food all those months ago at that restaurant.' He glanced at Makoto and saw that as her blush began to go away, she too looked on in curiosity. "Crap, I can't tell him anything," he thought.

He looked back at the taxi driver. "Ah, never mind. Thought you were someone else," he said smoothly.

"Oh, okay," the taxi driver said, felling relieved. For a second there he had thought this guy knew him from somewhere.

"Um, not to be rude or anything, but can we please go now?" Makoto asked a half minute later. This got a quick nod from the taxi driver. And with that, he began to drive, with Makoto now getting ready to talk with Souichiro about what was bugging him.

Back on the ship, the tag match continued. Bob, still on the sidelines, was torn between being serious about this or grinning pervertedly along with the male members of the audience. The reason behind this inner struggle of his was because during the past few minutes, Rachel and Renka had somehow began to strip off pieces of their clothes, the former having nearly lost the bottom part of her outfit while the upper part of Renka's clothes were torn. Bob may love Chiaki and all, but even he had to admit that not staring in perversion had proven to be an incredibly hard task to accomplish. However, the reason why he also was serious throughout this was because whenever Rachel had suffered a wardrobe malfunction, Kensei ended up distracted, prompting Diego to attack him during these brief openings. It worried Bob.

That is, it did worry him until just a moment ago when Rachel, thinking that stripping Renka was distract Kensei yet again, only succeeded in angering the balding Chinese man, making him hit Diego, who had rushed him in that instant, with a fierce two handed blow.

And now, Diego was standing just a few feet away from Kensei, rubbing his chin. "Ha ha ha, looks like I miscalculated!" he said.

Bob's eyebrow twitched. It seemed like nothing Kensei did was really fazing the Yami member. He took solace in that Rachel, who had been distracted by Kensei not being distracted as intended, was attacked by Renka. "Give her hell," he thought with a smile at that.

The audience, on the other hand, didn't seem to share the same thoughts as him. "Kill him!" one person yelled out to Diego, "yeah, it doesn't matter which one of you does it, but tear him apart!" another said.

Bob now grinded his teeth together, sick of all of this. He turned around. "SHUT THE FUCK UP! YOU'RE ALL TOO DAMN NOISEY!" he yelled at the top of his lungs.

It took everyone completely off guard. Not only did the audience actually quiet down, more out of shock than any real compliance, but Renka and Rachel even faltered in their battle at how loud Bob had yelled. Even Kensei and Diego glanced at him.

In the ring, Kensei sighed, nodding his head. "He is right. You're all too loud." He chuckled a bit. "Yelling things like 'kill him' is truly shameful for a group of adults." Now he looked away from Diego and glared at the audience, letting out some of his Ki. The audience shrunk under his gaze. "You guys should have families. Wouldn't you be embarrassed if they saw you in this state?!"

When no one responded, Kensei decided to continue. "There are even people taken hostage who are riding on this ship. And the situation you're placed in now…"

He would have continued if Diego suddenly didn't laugh. Everyone now focused on the Luchador, most of them now feeling the hairs on the back of their necks stand to attention. Something was wrong.

Diego jumped onto the rope, his balance on it surprising even Kensei, none of them having expected the large man to be capable of something like that. "Though I finally got them excited, you're trying to calm down my show," he said in what had to be the calmest voice they've ever heard from him. "And now you're even talking about unnecessary things."

Then, much to everyone's shock, he reached for his mask. "He's going to take it off?!" Renka and Bob thought in unison.

Rachel, on the other hand, knew differently. She seemed to just freeze in place. "M-Maestro?! Maestro is-!" she began to think.

And that was when Diego finally pulled off his mask. To reveal another mask. But this one was different from the one he just had on. It had lightning like streaks running down the sides of it and along the edges of the mask, a sharp contrast to the calm and almost flowing pattern the other mask had sported. It was darker color than said mask too.

But the most drastic change was the mask itself, but Diego's own facial expression. His smile, which had always been large to the point of almost literally splitting his face, now seemed thinner and forced. A vein of anger could also be seen on his face as well. Though his eyes couldn't be seen, it was very obvious that he was glaring fiercely at Kensei.

"Uwaaahhh, Diego-sama is angry!" the announcer exclaimed before running off.

The audience nearly jumped out of their seats and ran themselves as Ki suddenly seemed to explode from Diego. Renka and Bob couldn't help but feel blown away by it. "Holy sh-!" Bob thought.

Kensei merely smiled, as if he had just been proven right about something. "So you've finally showed your true nature…"

The audience couldn't take it anymore; they all got out of their seats and began to make a run for it, Diego's Ki flaring even more after Kensei's statement to a point where it just wasn't worth it anymore.

Renka, distracted by the movement, chased after them. "Hey!" she yelled. "What happened to the composure you guys had before?!"

If she expected to get an answer, she didn't get a chance to hear it for Rachel gave chase, using some of the now running people as leaping stones to get through the crowd and right at Renka. The blonde then jumped right at Renka and hit her with a powerful clothesline attack, hitting Renka dead on and knocking her into the air.

But as soon as this happened, Rachel came to a stop, thinking that her attack just knocked her opponent out. And that was a mistake on her part; Renka quickly recovered from the attack and dived out of the air and slammed right into Rachel's exposed back, eliciting a cry of surprise and pain out of the girl. "Grr! You'll pay for that!" Rachel yelled.

Renka merely smiled in response. "Then come on!"

But back in the ring, Diego made his move, rushing straight at Kensei, before jumping up into the air and then dive-bombing right at him. Kensei leapt back to avoid the very fast moving attack, but he had totally underestimated the power behind the attack for as soon as Diego landed, the ring practically exploded from the sheer force of it, knocking Bob back, though the teen managed to do a flip to right himself. "Son of a bitch!" the teen yelled as he took to running back a bit. However, he noticed that the attack had also knocked a few unlucky members of the audience into the air. Cursing, Bob leapt as high as he could grabbed two of them on his shoulders before landing, rolling in order to avoid hurting the two he just grabbed in the process. As soon as that occurred, he let go off them and told them to run off. This was a demand that they happily obliged, making a mad run towards the room's exit.

Kensei had done something similar, grabbing three men out of the air and setting them down as soon as he landed. He then turned and glared at his opponent. "You just nearly killed them!" he yelled, clenching his fist, "I'm shocked to hear of an entertainer that would involve his audience in the fight!"

Diego slowly rose from the impact crater of his attack. "Audience? You're wrong; these guys have always been my targets!" He jumped onto the top of a nearby poker table that had somehow managed to stay in one piece. "They'll laugh and watch the affairs of others, but when they themselves are thrown onto the stage, they become scared and quiver and then scatter. AND ISN'T THAT THE GREATEST SHOW?!" he roared while laughing.

Bob twitched. "Fucking psycho…"

Then Diego jumped right at Kensei, but before he could crash right into the smaller man, Kensei struck with a double palm thrust, forcing the Smiling Fist to dodge by landing abruptedly and moving towards another poker table. "But Diego, isn't there no audience to watch?!" he demanded.

The Smiling Fist, though angry, still laughed. "Oh, but there is!" he said in glee as he pointed towards the ceiling. Both Kensei and Bob looked, blinking in surprise upon seeing cameras monitoring them all. "The show right now is being broadcasted via satellite to my clients across the world! And for those who want to see the climax up close, they have gathered their ships around this one! That's Diego quality!"

Then the man jumped once again. "Diego Tika Body Press!" he yelled.

Kensei sighed. "Once again, too many openings," he thought.

As Diego approached the Chinese master, Kensei reared back his right hand. When Diego was just a few feet above him, he lashed out with a hand thrust, intent to knock Diego into the air and to knock the air out of him. But Diego had something planned. At the same time Kensei attacked, Diego's arms, which he had kept outstretched, suddenly closed in on Kensei and swatted aside his attack. kensei's eyes widened even as he launched yet another attack, only for Diego to counter it again.

"He can counter even in this state?!" he thought in shock.

"I GOT YOU!" Diego roared at the top of his lungs as he finally managed to counter enough of Kensei's attack to crush him under his own weight. The Smiling Fist promptly sunk his fingers into the floor, piercing the thick material it was made of as though it were paper. He clearly had no intention of moving off of Kensei.

"Papa!" Renka cried out even as she continued to battle Rachel, trying to avoid accidentally getting others involved.

Rachel just laughed. "Ha! No one could beat maestro!"

Renka focused her attention back on her. "You-!" She was cut off by Rachel throwing a punch at her, which she managed to duck under, but Rachel had anticipated the move and launched a low kick at her. Renka then tried to move out of the way, but she knew that she wouldn't make it in time. Rachel was going to hit her.

Or rather, she would have if Bob hadn't suddenly charged over from where he had been and kicked the YOMI member hard in the side. Rachel yelled out in pain and surprise before she went reeling from the attack.

"Bob!" Renka yelled, happy for the assist.

Said teen grinned. "Was getting tired of hearing her talk. Let's shut her up for good!" he said as he charged after Rachel. Renka nodded and followed his lead.

Back with Kensei and Diego, the former struggled to get out from under the latter, launching attack after attack at Diego's midsection even though he was crushed under the large man. "Tennou Takutou!" Kensei yelled as he finally managed to deliver a powerful palm strike into Diego's chest that forced the Smiling Fist off of him.

Diego went sailing through the air, but flipped around and landed several feet away from his opponent without too much difficulty. "Ha ha ha, impressive. But now it's time for the climax!" And with that, he charged at Kensei.

With Kenichi, Miu, Raichi, and Shizuru, the quartet still battled the red feather. Kenichi was sporting a bit of a bloody nose now, due to having been punch violently square in the face by said man. His arms and legs also had several bruises two from blocking hits that he had been unable to dodge. Miu and Shizuru, the two of them having been the target of his wrath, sported a few more bruises than Kenichi did as the red feather had mainly gone after them. Shizuru was clutching her right side, certain that the last attack had nearly fractured her ribs, though she can't be a hundred percent sure until she gets actual medical attention. Miu still retained her usual fighting stance without too much trouble, but her breath was ragged, having been kicked hard in the gut by the man once or twice, leaving her with some slight breathing problems for now.

Out of all of them, Raichi sported the least injuries, her unorthodox fighting style having allowed her to just barely avoid some hits that would have left as banged up as Kenichi. That didn't mean that she wasn't in pain. "Ugh, he's really tough," she muttered in frustration. The others nodded in agreement.

However, that also didn't mean that the man was without damage too. His shades were broken, revealing his dark brown eyes. His jaw was a bit swollen too from a nasty kick that Shizuru had managed to land in retaliation for the attack that nearly broke her ribs. Blood was slowly trickling down the side of his face too from a cut that had been unintentionally given to him via a kick from Raichi. Like Miu, he had some breathing problems too thanks in part to Kenichi having nailed him in the stomach with seven punch combo, the Ryozanpaku disciple having struck with considerable power. And lastly, the man's legs were shaking, indicating that his stamina was running low. Though his Ki was still as impressive as before, they all could tell that he wouldn't be able to take much more. The only issue was just figuring out exactly how much more he could take before finally going down.

"Damn! Is there any way to stop this guy?!" Shizuru whispered to the others, wanting to maybe formulate some kind of plan.

"Don't know. None of our attacks are strong enough to knock him out with one blow," Raichi muttered back.

At that, Miu's eyes lit up. "That's it!" she whispered.

"What?" both Raichi and Shizuru whispered at once, their eyes not leaving the wary form of the man, who simply stood where he was, contemplating his next move too.

"Kenichi's mubyoshi technique!" Miu whispered back.

Now it was Kenichi's turn to look excited. "That's right!"

Shizuru looked at him, a bit of hope in her eyes now. She was still a little uncertain though. "What's that?"

"It's an original move that I came up with! It combines what I've learned from my masters into one move," Kenichi quickly answered, "if I can land a direct hit, then maybe we could win!"

They all then shared a look. A second later, Raichi and Shizuru nodded. "Alright then. I take it this move requires a little start up?" Shizuru asked. When Kenichi nodded, she smirked. "Alright then, we'll distract him!"

Then she and Raichi ran straight at the man. "Kuh! Cocky brats!" he yelled as he took a few uneasy steps forward, rearing back his still transformed arm to backhand them.

When he unleashed said attack at Raichi, who had managed to get ahead of Shizuru, the girl leapt over the incoming arm and twirled around in midair before attempting to kick him straight in the face. He brought up his other arm in time to guard, Raichi wincing slightly in the process, thankful for the kneepads she wore.

She continued to twirl, moving right over the man. Now it was Shizuru's turn to attack. The auburn haired girl slid across the ground towards the red feather, intent on attacking from below. Since the arm he used to block Raichi's attack was still in front of his face, he didn't notice Shizuru from below until it was almost too late. Almost being the key word here.

As Shizuru appeared in his line of sight, his eyes widened in shock before kicking forward with his left leg, which was closest to the girl. But the girl saw it coming and maneuvered around it even while sliding. Then she jumped straight up and kneed the man right in the groin. She got a bit of sadistic joy at watching the man's face switch from rage to pure agony, his mouth opening in a silent scream.

As the man unconsciously brought his hands over the hurt area, keeling over in the process, Shizuru kneed him in the face with her other knee, knocking him back a bit. "Bitch!" he muttered in pain, staggering back.

Shizuru merely ignored the insult and proceeded to try and attack again, but was caught off guard by the man actually using his still stumbling form to launch a kick at her stomach. She let out all the air she had and flew back, nearly slamming into Miu who had now moved forward.

Miu moved in and once within range, tried to punch the guy in the chest, but he managed to finally recover and sidestep the attack before trying to return one of his own. Miu ducked and slammed both of her arms forearms first into the bottom of his arm to try and direct the attack upwards. It took all of her strength to do it, but Miu managed to pull it off and she followed up the assault with kick to the left side of the red feather.

Unfortunately for her, the man was quick on the uptake and raised his knee to successfully block the attack. Miu cringed in pain, but shrugged it off quickly before jumping back, well out of the man's reach.

Her opponent then began to move forward, but Raichi, whom he completely forgot about, snuck up from behind, delivering the most powerful drop kick she could muster, having spent the past minute or so that she was left unwatched to build up as much of a running start as possible. She grunted in exertion as the man went stumbling forward a dozen steps, his muscular and draconic forearms and legs making him heavier than he was without them.

"Kenichi, now!" Miu yelled.

"Right!" said teen replied as he let out a battle cry and charged forward. To any onlooker capable of keeping up with the speed of the fight, it would seem as if the Ryozanpaku disciple was going to slam right into the red feather, but they'd be wrong. Just as it seemed like they'd crash, Kenichi came to a halt and pressed his fingers against the man's chest.

The man had stopped stumbling just enough for him to notice Kenichi's fingers pressing into his chest. "What the fu-?"

He didn't get a chance to finish his sentence as Kenichi performed his original attack. "Mubyoshi!" he yelled.

He rammed his right fist as hard as he could into the red feather's chest as he executed his attack. the punch struck him completely, the man having not had even a half-chance to try and block or move. Shizuru and Raichi stopped moving and stared a little slack-jawed as Kenichi's fist seemed to have a mind of its own, the girls having a hard time keeping track of it as it seemed to somehow slam repeatedly over and over again into the man's chest. It was as if Kenichi was trying to punch right through him, putting all of his body weight into the blow.

The man's expression was one of both immense shock and pain. It took him a little over a second for him to start yelling out in pain. "Gah!" was all he managed to get out as the attack finally ended. The sheer power of Kenichi's mubyoshi was enough to send the man flying, forcing Raichi and Shizuru to roll out of the way in order to avoid colliding with the now airborne person. Even then, the flying man was still moving fast enough that it caused a strong breeze to nearly make Raichi's long ponytails smack into her own face, nearly startling the girl and making her trip up in the process.

A mere second later, the guy slammed right into the wall, just barely avoiding going over the rails and into the ocean. He struck with a loud thud, denting the steel wall considerably as it happened. The man cried out in pain once more before falling to the ground a few seconds later, having gotten sort of stuck to the wall upon impact.

The quartet stood where they were with bated breath, wondering if he will get back up. They waited a whole minute to see what would happen. As the man now lied on the floor, he didn't so much as twitch. They waited an extra thirty seconds just in case. When nothing still happened, they began to relax.

However, they immediately were back on guard when the man's arms and legs began to contract and expand a bit suddenly. "T-That… doesn't look good…" they all thought simultaneously.

It turned out that they were proven wrong as seconds later, the arms and legs slowly lost their extra bulk, the scales disappearing. The man's red feather ability was deactivating.

They breathed a sigh of relief. "We won!" Kenichi exclaimed happily, pumping his right fist in triumph.

"Awesome move!" Shizuru complimented as Miu and Raichi shared smiles of relief.

Kenichi proceeded to sheepishly rub the back of his head. "Eh heh heh, thanks." But then his expression completely changed, doing a one-eighty. "Wait! We still need to take care of the bomb!"

The girls, slightly startled by the sudden mood swing, became just as serious as them. "Right," they said. It was time to put an end to this mess.

* * *

Alright, managed to finish! Wow, this time around, it actually took me quite a bit longer than usual to get this chapter done. Sorry for that! Just been busy with class and all. And I may be getting a job too, so that will potentially affect my writing time.

That said, I will try not to take TOO long with the chapter, but once again, I can't make any real guarantees though I certainly would like to.

Hope you enjoyed the chapter and don't hesitate to review!


	24. Chapter 24

Wow, how time flies! Sorry to all for this late chapter, but as you can probably guess by now, my classes have kept me a little preoccupied; I had like 3 tests in the same week amongst other things so much studying had to be done in order to be prepared for that.

Now that aside, I am finally ending this arc! And with this finished, I more or less will be jumping into the next one without too much delay and from there, things will begin to get rather bad for our heroes here to put things a little mildly. I won't say anything to give it away, but Souichiro will start to get really involved now in this story…

And on a completely random note, HOTD is finally coming out of its long ass hiatus! Finally! Now all that is left is to just eagerly wait for whenever the author and artist start to release some new chapters. They certainly took their sweet time though. I just hope they put the hiatus to good use.

But enough of that! Here is the next chapter. Hope you enjoy.

Chapter 24

Several minutes after knocking the red feather unconscious, the quartet of Kenichi, Miu, Raichi, and Shizuru, quickly made their way back to the room they were in before. Though it took them a few minutes, they had finally managed to find the bomb and now Miu was currently looking it over, trying to figure out just what kind of bomb it is and how to best deal with it. As she did this, the others were more or less standing guard in case more guards suddenly came.

"So, Shizuru-san, just how did you come to meet Raichi-san?" Kenichi asked to the girl standing next to him, curious as to how the two girls came to be comrades. Despite his curiosity, he did his best to keep from letting his guard down; the last thing any of them wanted was to be blindsided by an attack.

Shizuru sheepishly rubbed the back of her head. "Ah, that. Well, it is a bit of a long story, but to make it really short, I was trying to fight my way out of captivity…" she began.

Kenichi's eyes widened. "Captivity?! You were a prisoner or something?"

Shizuru nodded, her face getting an angered expression. "Yes. By a man known as Kago Sohaku." She didn't see Kenichi's eyes widen at the mention of Sohaku's name. "I was kept as a prisoner by him in order to 'feed' his supposed weapon, a guy named Nagi Souichiro." She once again missed the look of surprise in Kenichi's eyes as the teen realized that he was standing next to someone who had also apparently been involved in the whole matter.

She shifted a bit, taking a deep breath to calm her nerves, which were being worked up right now. "Anyways, we, that being myself and Souichiro-kun, did try to escape, but we ran into a lot of guards along the way. I chose to take them on alongside someone else while Souichiro-kun and his two friends escaped. I thought I'd die then and there since there were so many opponents though…" she drifted off as she remembered all of this, "…But luckily, I and the other guy caught a break and made a run for it. Once we made it out of there though, we got separated as we tried to figure out where we were and by sheer chance I stumbled across Raichi-san's dad out on a job."

Kenichi looked at her, entranced now by her brief story. "And the rest is history?" he asked, hazarding a guess. He spoke slowly though as he tried to wrap his mind around the words he was hearing. He couldn't help but find it both odd and sort of worrying and interesting that all of these people related in some way to Souichiro kept coming out of the blue.

Shizuru chuckled. "More or less, yeah. When I met Tenmon-san, he took note of my skill as I mistook him for someone working with Sohaku and attacked. After the misunderstanding was cleared up, he took me in and from there I met Raichi-san. We've been partners on things like this ever since."

"I-I see," Kenichi muttered.

Shizuru now turned around to face him. "Say, you wouldn't mind if I ask you a question?"

"H-huh? Oh, go ahead," Kenichi responded as he was snapped out of his thoughts.

"Are the two of you dating?" she asked, gesturing to him and then to Miu.

Kenichi's reaction was immediate and humorous. Nearly jumping where he was, the teen did a full body blush. "Eh?! W-W-Why would you ask that?" he asked.

Shizuru giggled a bit at his reaction. "Ah, nothing really." She paused. "You like her," she stated simply, speaking lowly enough so that Miu and Raichi wouldn't hear.

Kenichi calmed down. "Y-Yeah, I do," he said.

Shizuru now looked thoughtful. "Does she know?"

Kenichi shook his head. "I-I haven't really told her anything like that. I'm just not ready to tell her, I think," he said, his voice sounding a tad bit sad.

He looked at Shizuru when he felt her place a hand on his shoulder in a gesture of reassurance. "Don't be afraid to tell her how you feel. I may not know anything about you or her, but I can tell from a glance at the two of you, that you've known each other for quite some time. And while the two of you are good friends, you have to keep in mind that there is a chance of her falling for someone else if you take too long to tell her how you feel," she said. She sounded like a sage, knowledgeable and enlightened.

It was rather comforting to the Ryozanpaku teen, who was honestly surprised by how this situation was turning out; getting advice on confessing while in the midst of potentially being blown sky high sure did seem funny in the back of his mind right now, though it wouldn't be too laughable anymore if the bomb went off. "Really?" he said quietly.

Shizuru nodded. "I know that you're not going to suddenly become bold and tell her how you feel, but just keep in mind that waiting for too long won't do you any favors. But eventually, I think it would do you some good to tell her your feelings. And to be honest," she said, now a knowing smile on her face, "I think she seems to like you too."

At this Kenichi's facial expression went through several different emotions. "R-Really?" he asked, his voice getting a little high-pitched from what could be shock and happiness.

Shizuru nodded. "But seriously, don't take too long to tell her how you feel," she said.

Kenichi nodded absentmindedly at this point as he thought what she just said over. "Thank you," he said earnestly.

Shizuru simply smiled. "No problem."

"But just how do you know so much about this sort of thing?" Kenichi asked, genuinely curious.

Shizuru once again looked a little sheepish. "During my time in captivity, I came to like Souichiro-kun," she said simply.

Kenichi's jaw dropped. He had seen at school from time to time the number of girls that have now seemed to be fangirls of the true warrior and he even noticed how Makoto hung out with him rather often. Not to mention what Aya had told him about her being his fiancée. "Wow, he sure is popular…" he thought.

"I-I see. And did you tell him how you felt?" he asked.

Shizuru's face fell. "Didn't get much of a chance to given the situation at the time," she said sadly. But then a second later, this sadness was replaced by competitive anger. "Not to mention that damn cockroach hair girl!" she suddenly growled out as fire seemed to appear in her eyes.

Kenichi nearly jumped back from the girl, having been totally caught off guard by this sudden change in mood. "C-Cockroach haired girl?" he asked, shrinking back away from the girl.

Shizuru nodded vigorously. "Yeah! This girl with white hair with two antennas on top pretty much said that Souichiro-kun belonged to her!" she nearly yelled in indignation, shaking her right fist in frustration while her left hand, which had still been gripping Kenichi's shoulder began to squeeze harder unknowingly.

Kenichi, grunting slightly from the pain of Shizuru's comical death grip, decided to not question the girl further on this matter nor mention that he actually knew who Souichiro was either. And he had a bit of an idea as to who the 'cockroach haired girl' was.

But while he had his talk with Shizuru, Miu and Raichi had been more or less doing the same thing at the same time. "Aha, so it is a bit of an old-fashioned bomb. Dealing with it should be pretty easy," Miu said with a smile as she removed her hair clip and flicked it open, revealing a small blade. She prepared to cut one of the exposed wires she was now looking at with it in order to try and disable the bomb.

From just a little behind her, Raichi stood guard. "Who cares about that? More importantly…" she began, "are you two going out?" she asked suddenly.

And she asked at quite possibly the wrong time too; when she asked, Miu was so taken off guard by this personal question that she accidently ended up cutting almost all of the exposed wires. At the same time this question was asked, Kenichi sneezed. Shizuru did too, her moment of indignation being brought to an end by said sudden sneeze.

Miu whirled around to see Raichi snickering at her, hands behind her head. "W-We're not!" Miu nearly yelled at her, being careful not to draw the attention of the other two.

"Hmm, is that so?" Raichi asked as she pondered something. Then a second later, she smiled happily. "Then, that means I still have a chance!" she said happily.

Miu just stared at her now, not knowing what to say. And before she could try and recover from what she just heard, Raichi ran up to Shizuru and grabbed her before she started to run off. "Well, I guess we should go to the upper floor! Our client could be in danger, and no matter where we go, if you fail, we'll be blown up anyway!" she said.

"E-Eh?! Raichi-san?! You can let go now!" Shizuru said as she snapped fully out of her daze of sorts. She hastily pulled herself free of the girl's grip and turned briefly to give Kenichi and Miu a sheepish wave.

Kenichi, who had been a little taken aback as well by this sudden development, hastily waved back. "Be careful, Raichi-san, Shizuru-san!" he called out after them.

Miu, on the other hand, was still lost in thought. "Is Kenichi… actually pretty popular?" she mentally asked herself. Her attention went back to the bomb though when she heard a sound coming from it. "Eh?"

The bomb had a small video screen that was off before, but now a video recording of Diego appeared. "Aha, if you're seeing this video, then you must have really screwed up trying to dispose of this bomb, huh? Time to penalize you!" he said just as the recording stopped.

When that happened, suddenly a timer appeared and showed that it would be ten minutes until detonation. Naturally, this was met with much negativity. "Eh, in ten minutes, it's going to blow?!" Kenichi cried, his conversation with Shizuru now being the furthest thing away from the front of his mind now.

Before him, Miu moved her arms about almost robotically. "That's unfortunate," she said in a comically sad voice, "and there was a fifty-fifty chance too…"

Kenichi clutched the sides of his head in understandable frustration. "Gaah! This is bad! We can't tell Ma-san and evacuate everyone in ten minutes!" he yelled.

Miu then took a deep breath, ignoring Kenichi's cry. "We can't give up! I'll try to stop the timer!" she said with as much determination as she could muster.

Kenichi stared at her as though she just lost her mind, but then a few seconds later, the same look of renewed resolve appeared on his face. "You're right," he said quietly to himself, "we can't just go and give up in a situation like this." He turned around. "I'll keep on the look out! Stay calm, Miu-san!"

"Right!" Miu said back before getting back on task, focusing every last bit of her energy into studying the bomb. Any more mistakes can't be tolerated now; the lives of everyone on this boat depended greatly on it. She just hoped she could put a stop to the bomb in time.

Taking a several minutes to thoroughly study the wiring, she slowly reached for one and cut it. When this happened, both she and Kenichi, who had turned to see what she was doing despite being a look out, waited with bated breath to see what would happen.

Much to their great relief, the timer stopped. "I got it!" Miu exclaimed happily.

Kenichi cheered. "Thank you!"

However, their joy was cut short as the video screen the bomb had turned back on. It was once again a recording of Diego. "Hey, good work on disabling the bomb!" it said.

"Oddly cheery considering the circumstances…" Kenichi and Miu muttered.

The next words of the recording made their hearts stop though for a second. "Not! Did you really think you could disable the bomb that easily?! Ha ha ha, for that, I'll penalize you again! This is Diego quality!" the recording said before it turned off. When that happened, the countdown went from just a bit above three minutes to just a bit above two minutes.

Kenichi began to freak out. "Oh no, no, no!" He began to flail his arms about wildly. "This is bad! How do we stop the bomb now?!"

Miu simply gaped at the now off video screen before shakily picking up her hand. "I-I'll try again!"

"Let me give it a try!" a new voice yelled.

Both Kenichi and Miu stopped what they were doing and simply gaped. They recognized the voice. "Grandpa?!" Miu yelled.

"Elder?!" Kenichi yelled as well.

Barely a second past after that before the door that they had entered from after their fight with the red feather flung itself open and in came Hayato, his eyes glowing with what could be rage. "Ah, I'm glad that the two of you are alright!" he said, smiling in order to try and calm Kenichi, though the glowing eyes sort of canceled out that effect.

"Grandpa!" Miu exclaimed happily.

Hayato looked over at the bomb. "Hmm, so this is the bomb, huh? It's bigger than expected," he commented.

Kenichi then snapped out of his shock and pointed at the bomb now. "Ah, elder, do you think you can defuse the bomb before it blows?" he asked hurriedly. Sweat could be seen trickling almost comically down his face as the timer kept on ticking away.

Hayato smirked. "In a manner of speaking," he said. Before Kenichi or Miu could question what he meant by that, the invincible superman walked on over to the bomb and grabbed a hold of it with both of his hands. With a yell, he pulled suddenly and the bomb came loose from its resting place, wires from the bottom that had kept it plugged to the floor sparking harmlessly. The two teens before him just gaped at him. Hayato smiled. "Looks like Ma was right; it doesn't go off when it senses motion," he said to himself. He now looked down at the two teens. "Now how about we get rid of this…" The increasingly smug grin on his face did little to reassure the two.

Meanwhile, back in the casino area of the ship, Kensei and Diego were still continuing their battle. For the past few minutes, they had taken to fighting in the air for a bit. During this time being airborne, the Smiling Fist proved himself to be quite the natural fighter in midair combat, Kensei barely being able to land any sort of real damaging attacks on him. However, that had changed near the end of their little exchange, Kensei having managed to deliver a powerful Chinese kenpo move that had managed to actually hurt him.

Now the two powerful masters could be seen standing several feet apart from each on the ground, Diego bleeding rather profusely from a wound on his right shoulder, the result of Kensei's Ma-Style Ku Unju attack, which shredded some of the muscle in said shoulder.

Despite this severe injury, Diego laughed. "Well, looks like you had a few tricks up your sleeve after all!" He exclaimed, his enthusiasm clearly obvious.

Kensei merely regarded the man coldly. "Hmph, you'll have to try hard if you want to win," he shot back.

Diego laughed once more. "Hah! Not a problem! In just one minute, I'll not only be able to defeat you, but will also be able to escape with my disciple before this ship blows!" he yelled out before charging straight at the much smaller man.

Upon closing the distance, Diego began to lash out with a flurry of punches and grapples, each attack being strong and fast enough to warrant a bit of worry from Kensei, who did his best to deflect the punches while outright dodging the grapple attempts. The Ryozanpaku master in turn would take every opening he saw to try and attack Diego as well, but the big man was dodging a good portion of his moves as well, leaving the two elite masters in a deadlock.

Several yards away from them, the fight between the duo of Renka and Bob against Rachel continued. "Take this, bitch!" Bob yelled at Rachel, performing a roundhouse kick. Said girl ducked under the hit, but Bob saw it coming and right after his failed attack, swiftly duck as he spun, now lashing out with his other leg.

Once more Rachel dodged. "Ha, you're too slow!" she gloated as she jumped over Bob's leg. She then moved in to try and grapple him, but for the past several minutes when she and Bob and Renka had been fighting, Bob had mainly stuck to kicks. So the YOMI member was taken rather by surprise when she moved in on Bob only to have to raise her arms in time to block a strong punch from Bob as he quickly stood back up.

The punch was strong enough to make Rachel reconsider her current position and so she jumped back a bit. However, this caused her to practically fall into Renka's hands. Or rather, to more or less walk right into Renka's kick.

The Chinese girl let out a battle cry as she suddenly took Rachel by surprise, coming from the YOMI girl's right and delivering a fierce kick to the chin that sent Rachel flying. Said girl went flipping through the air for several feet before landing and charging at the two. At this point, Renka and Bob stood next to each other and when Rachel began to run at them, they too charged at their opponent.

Just a few a seconds later, all three were within range. Renka lashed out with a low kick, in the hopes of getting Rachel to jump over her so that Bob could nail her with one of his own attacks. But her opponent appeared to have sensed this coming and instead of jumping over the attack, Rachel sidestepped to the left before throwing herself right at Renka."I got you!" she yelled out in glee as she was about to get Renka in a grapple hold, but Bob wasn't about to let that happen on his watch.

With a roar of indignation, he rushed towards the in motion Rachel and let loose with the strongest kick he could muster at the moment. He struck gold as his foot made contact with Rachel's gut and he did this in just the nick of time as Rachel's arms were about to wrap around Renka's torso when this happened.

The girl coughed in pain as she promptly went skidding across the floor. "Guh! You-!" she began to say, but had to stop talking as Renka went for a flying kick, forcing Rachel to roll out of the way as the kick had been aimed for the same spot she was just hit in.

Following the dodge roll, Rachel did her very best to shake off the pain and tossed herself once more at Renka. Unlike last time just now, she was successful. "Ha! Now take thi-!" Rachel shouted.

Suddenly, it seemed like the nearest wall exploded. It forced Rachel, Renka, and Bob to stop their fight and duck for cover as large chunks of the wall went flying all around the casino now. Even Kensei and Diego paused briefly in their fight to see just what was going on. Out of the large new hole came Hayato, who carried the bomb on his right shoulder.

He came to an immediate stop merely ten feet away from Diego and Kensei, the latter jumping back so that he was now only a few feet in front of the Ryozanpaku elder. When this happened, Hayato hefted the bomb and showed it to Kensei. "Is this the one, Ma?" he asked.

Kensei nodded. "Yes, that's definitely the bomb in the photo," Kensei confirmed.

"What is he doing here? How did he get hold of the bomb?!" Rachel demanded as she proceeded to try and restart her fight against Rachel and Bob, though she idly looked at Hayato and the bomb while she threw herself at Renka, the girl shooting out with her arms to fend off the incoming grapple attempt.

Bob snickered as he proceeded to try and help Renka, quickly getting behind Rachel and throwing a kick at her, making the girl break off her attack and move away. "Heh, that old guy isn't scared of fucking bombs!"

Ignoring the fight between the three, Kensei and Hayato continued to hold their brief conversation. "When I saw that picture, I came to the conclusion that the bomb could only be in an engine room," he commented, which was an accurate guess as that was where Kenichi and the others had found it.

If this bothered Diego, the Smiling Fist didn't show it. Instead, the Lucha Libre pulled out a detonator and started to press the button on top. It did nothing. "Ha ha ha! It looks like some of the circuits have been cut. Now the explosion delay button won't work anymore." He now put the detonator away. "That bomb is a megaton bomb! How about we all get blown up together? For entertainment, having the final punch line end with you blowing yourself up isn't too bad…"

Hayato now glanced at the timer on the bomb and saw that it had just reached the ten second mark. He merely grinned. He lifted it high over his head before rearing back his right arm. Aiming upwards at an angle at a window, the elder proceeded to do what no one else with a sane mind would have: he tossed the bomb.

"Whaa-!" Kensei freaked out, jumping up quickly and punching through the glass where the bomb would have crashed. "Elder, you could have given me a warning!" he exclaimed as he moved out of the way as fast as possible, the bomb now going flying through the open hole and nearly several hundred yards into the sky.

Hayato did this not a second too soon; the bomb exploded once it hit the five hundred yard mark in the sky. The explosion that occurred when it detonated was large, quickly expanding to a size that rivaled that of the cruise ship itself. Since the explosion had gone off rather close by, the ship rocked wildly, breaking up the fight between Rachel, Renka, and Bob once again while the still fleeing passengers did all that they could to keep from falling, though they were immensely happy to be alive as the explosion began to die down, revealing that the ship remained unscathed in any way.

Kensei held on tightly to his hat while using one of his arms to shield himself. "Kuh-! What blast force!" Now he began to address Hayato. "Elder! Even if there aren't any movement sensors, if it had struck the glass or wall, the bomb still would have gone off!"

"Sorry! I don't have any interest in machines!" Hayato replied a little sheepishly.

From a little while away, the three fighting teens were steadily getting themselves up from off the ground, having been pretty much tossed by the blast force of the bomb. "Damn," Bob muttered as he shakily stood up, "just where the hell did that masked shithead get a bomb like that?!"

From beside him, Renka stood up slowly as well. "Uh, beats me. I'm just glad we're still alive."

But all of their attention was quickly grabbed when Diego flung himself high into the sky, laughing like a madman. "Kah hah! Those who interrupt my show must die!" he yelled before propelling himself right at Kensei, who was forced to leap outside to where Diego was at in order to avoid the surprise attack.

Quickly jumping onto the open deck, Kensei looked up in time to see Diego once more charging right at him. Kensei promptly struck out, using a move known as Kuu Unjo as Diego closed in. He smashed his left palm straight into Diego's chest with devastating force, but the Smiling Fist didn't back down from the powerful hit. His smile merely widened. "When forced into a corner, you turn the tables…" he muttered as Kensei reared back his left hand and was about to strike with his right palm. Diego suddenly spun in midair, causing Kensei, who struck in that instant, to miss. "That is a true entertainer does!"

After his dodge spin, Diego immediately grabbed hold of Kensei and jumped straight up dozens of yards into the air. After doing so, he raised his left leg as though he was kneeing someone with it and placed Kensei right under it while placing his hands on Kensei to keep him there. Knowing what was to come, Kensei immediately struggled to break free, but found himself having a very hard time doing. He did note that while he was currently in the air, he could see Kenichi and Miu running from where they were at towards the deck while Rachel, Renka, and Bob had followed his and Diego's lead, taking their fight outside. Though Rachel was slowly beginning to be overwhelmed by Renka's and Bob's combined might, she was still holding her own.

His attention snapped back to Diego when the man once more laughed. "The sky belongs to the luchador! If we're up here, no matter how strong your insides are, you won't withstand this blow!" he yelled as the two now began to fall at breakneck speeds. As this occurred, he called for Rachel. "Castor!"

At this call, Rachel suddenly broke off her fight with her two opponents. "The camera!" she said to herself as she began to turn around and make a run for it.

"Oh no you don't…" both Renka and Bob muttered as they simultaneously threw a front kick at Rachel, who swiftly dodged them both.

The YOMI member proceeded to head immediately to the rails of the deck nearby where a camera was mounted on. Grabbing it off of its hinges, she immediately pointed it towards the plummeting Diego and Kensei. "Por favor! Maestro!"

Upon sensing that the camera was centered on him, Diego grinned. This cost him. "Chafu!" Kensei yelled as he proceeded to spin his limbs and even his midsection to an extent. The velocity at which he spun forced Diego's hands off of him and now he was free from the luchador's grasp. He promptly turned and struck Diego right in the chest, the force of the blow knocking them apart and towards the ground.

"Tssk! Are you a fish?!" Diego yelled, the Chafu move having taken him totally off guard. He was so focused on his fight that he didn't see Renka and Bob attack the surprised Rachel, knocking the camera out of her hands.

However, he was facing the wrong direction; Kensei was right behind him. Upon realizing this, the large man quickly spun around with a backhand, but Kensei easily smacked aside the attack and took two steps towards Diego before unleashing his next attack. "Shintou Suikyou Soushou!" he yelled as he slammed both palms into Diego's torso. This Chinese Kenpo attack is meant to damage a person's body and internal organs. This was something that Diego immediately felt as he coughed up blood from the devastating attack.

At this point, Kenichi and Miu had finally reached the deck, just in time to have witnessed the attack. "Whoa! He did that move with both hands?!" Kenichi exclaimed, remembering a time where Kensei had demonstrated the technique for him, but he had done so with only one hand at the time.

Miu, standing next to him, blushed lightly. "It's because it's the end of a serious battle," she said, "though it's also incredible because it's brought back some embarrassing memories…" she muttered that last part, also remembering when Kensei had demonstrated that attack for Kenichi, having done so at the hot spring when she had been taking a dip. Needless to say, it was not exactly a pleasant memory for her.

Diego staggered from the hit, but didn't fall, much to everyone's surprise. However, upon spotting another camera mounted onto the deck's rail, he began to almost casually walk towards it.

"What is he…?" Renka asked Bob, who merely shrugged in response. He was just as confused as her from where they were watching.

When Diego was finally in front of the camera, he spoke. "I am the Smiling Fist! Even when I fall, I am an entertainer… and that is Diego quality!" And that was when the effects of Kensei's attack made themselves known. Diego suddenly convulsed where he was, coughing up blood while some tears in his outfit and skin appeared, more blood flowing out of the new, but small wounds. But it was what the watchers couldn't see that hurt Diego the most, that being the damage his internal organs were being through. Though none were ruptured, they were still shook up badly and the man collapsed to the floor a mere second later from the pain.

Kensei was more or less right there in front of his body when this happened. "You truly are a martial artist of exceptional technique, heart, and physique. Even during the final attack, you paid attention to the camera angle. To go this far… well done!"

At this moment, Kenichi and Miu finally arrived. However, before they could offer Kensei any words of congratulations, the several ships that they spotted earlier suddenly blew their horns, forcing them to cover their ears. "Ah, just what are they doing?!" Kenichi exclaimed, asking no one in particular.

His yell drew the attention of Rachel, Renka, and Bob, who were still fighting, though now Rachel was on a definitive losing side here as she did her to best to try and fight defensively. "Ah, so you're Shirahama!" she yelled in surprise.

"Kenichi!" Renka also yelled, having definitely not expected him to be on board the ship.

Bob was just as surprised too. "What are you doing here?!"

Before Kenichi or Miu could respond to the three, they all heard a loud noise. Kensei, who so far seemed to ignore that Kenichi and Miu were there right now, was the first to notice what caught their attention. "Cannons?!" The other ships were armed with cannons. Cannons that were now being aimed right at their ship.

"Ha ha ha, looks like they plan to sink this ship…" Diego said tiredly from his spot on the floor, apparently still conscious, much to everyone's surprise.

But a second later, they all heard a loud crashing noise and looked over to the nearest ship. Much to their surprise, one of the cannons was being bent! And it was being done by none other than Hayato, who had silently watched the rest of Kensei's fight with Diego before quickly moving onto the ships, which he had noticed approached.

Diego merely laughed at this. "This is a good time to die! Now… kill me!" he said to Kensei.

His words brought the fight between his disciple and Renka and Bob to a halt. Kenichi and Miu could only stare in shock. "Is this Yami's logic?! That the loser has to die?!" Kenichi thought in horror and disgust.

Kensei, for his part, remained calm even as he replied. "I refuse!" he firmly stated.

Diego merely scoffed. "This is why followers of the katsujinken are so annoying…" he muttered before speaking up. "I've been destroyed! If the evil gets destroyed, he should fall like a man! This is entertainment! This is Diego quality! Kill me!"

Kensei's response was immediate. "No way."

Diego merely stared at him. "No matter what?"

"Yep," Kensei replied.

Diego seemed to growl in annoyance. Then, much to the surprise of everyone yet again, he slowly but surely began to try and sit up. Renka, her fight now over because of this development, walked with Bob up to Kensei. "Tch, he still wants to fight?!"

"Tough fucker…" Bob muttered.

"Don't worry; he has no power left to fight!" Kensei told them.

At this time, Diego had now managed to sit up completely, grunting all the while in pain. "Well, then it can't be helped. The loser must obey the winner… I will uphold my manners as a luchador." He reached behind his head for the strings of his mask. "I present you with this mask!"

Kenichi and Miu suddenly leaned forward, expressing an intriguing amount of interest as to how the Yami master looked like under the mask. Rachel merely looked on in shock. Renka and Bob looked somewhat stupefied by this development. Kensei kept up his calm façade.

Diego finally pulled off his mask… only to reveal that he had a much smaller one on, one that only covered his eyes, thereby not exposing his whole face. All of the teens there save for Rachel nearly face-faulted. "Is-Is he teasing us?" Kenichi, Miu, Renka, and Bob thought simultaneously as Diego handed over his mask to Kensei, who accepted it wordlessly.

Rachel just shivered in shock. "Maestro… even exposed the naked mask…" she muttered in complete shock.

Following the removal of his mask, Diego lost consciousness for good, finally succumbing to the injuries he took over the course of his battle. "He used the last of his power to take off the mask…" Kenichi muttered under his breath, slight awe in his voice. Clearly, the members of Yami could be just as eccentric and generally odd as his own masters.

"Don't worry, Smiling Fist," a calm and feminine voice called out all of a sudden, grabbing everyone's attention instantly.

"Who-?" Kenichi questioned, having heard the voice seemingly come from over his left, in the direction of the sea. He immediately turned his head to that direction only to suddenly feel a strong gust of wind blow over him and Miu, forcing the two to cover up their faces.

"I'll kill you," the voice said again, this time, coming from nearly the middle of the deck. Kenichi, Miu, and the others whirled around to see who spoke and all froze at who it was.

Kushinada Mikumo, yet another member of Yami had arrived.

Kensei was immediately on guard. "Who are you?!" he demanded, so focused on whether or not this woman was an enemy, that he didn't bother taking note of Mikumo's tall and ridiculously curvaceous and well endowed figure.

Said black haired woman merely eyed Diego's fallen form as she answered. "One of the One Shadow Nine Fists. Urukiboshi, the Bewitching Fist," she stated.

She promptly reached out for the back of Diego's head. Then she pulled. Diego's body seemingly lifted itself into the air, as though the man himself had jumped despite being completely out cold.

"W-What the hell?! It's like he's moving on his own!" Bob yelled in shock, the others just thinking along the same line.

Mikumo then turned around casually and without so much as a grunt, hurled the defeated Yami master off of the deck and into the sea. Naturally, all reacted in shock to this. But Diego's disciple took this very badly. "Maestro!" Rachel cried out. She turned to Mikumo. "How dare you!" she yelled before lunging at her, completely ignorant of her own wounds and damaged luchador apparel.

"No, don't!" Kensei cried out. He made to move towards her, only to stop when Mikumo spoke.

"Should you really be worrying about the enemy?" she calmly asked, still not even looking at Kensei.

Kensei froze for an instant before looking over to Kenichi, Miu, Renka, and Bob. There, standing right behind each of them, appeared to be another Mikumo! Without so much as a split second to waste, Kensei moved as fast as he could, getting right behind each of the teens and attacking the 'Mikumos', only for his kicks and punches to go right through them. They had been afterimages.

"What speed! It's like she could be everywhere!" Kensei thought, frightened because of how close the afterimages' hands have been to the unaware teens. Then he remembered Rachel.

Spinning around, he saw Mikumo place a hand on Rachel's forehead before spinning quickly herself, moving the girl with her until the YOMI member collapsed to the floor. "Damn it!" he thought as he prepared to fight if necessary.

"For someone so young, you're pretty good, Chinese man," Mikumo commented, "There isn't anyone who could chase all three of my shadows like that." She bent over a bit and placed her other hand over Rachel's face. "It's not your fault. Your master is the one to blame," she spoke softly as she appeared to knock the girl out.

She then proceeded to heft the girl over her shoulder, but the way she did was almost entrancing; it was as if Rachel simply floated onto her shoulder. "It's like zero gravity around that woman!" Kenichi thought, in awe of the sheer level of skill that Mikumo undeniably possessed.

But this awe, which the others felt, didn't stop them from rushing the older woman. "Who are you?!" Renka yelled as she and Bob charged straight at her, Kenichi and Miu looking ready to do so too.

"Stop! She's not someone you can handle!" Kensei yelled after them.

"So which of you is it?" Mikumo asked. They all froze, especially Kenichi. Faster than the eye could possibly blink, Mikumo's face was only inches away from Kenichi's own, giving the Ryozanpaku teen a look into Mikumo's own emotionless dark brown eyes. "I should properly burn the face of Ryozanpaku's strongest disciple into my memory, just as I have done with the young one known as Susano-o."

She continued to stare right into Kenichi's eyes, but this only lasted for a second at the most before a splash could be heard. Hayato then jumped up onto the deck, carrying Diego on his shoulder. He had grabbed him when he was tossed into the sea just now. "Who threw the pro wrestler into the ocean?!" he demanded.

At the sound of his voice, Mikumo stood up to her full height. "Ah, a really noisy one has come. I should disappear…" she said, more to herself than to anyone else.

Hayato spotted her. "Hmm, you…? Could it be?" he muttered to himself, but as soon as he landed on the deck, Mikumo made her move, jumping off the deck and far away onto a speeding boat that appeared to be one of Yami's.

All of them now walked towards the railing. "That woman is very powerful," Kensei commented to the elder of Ryozanpaku.

"Yes. She's definitely one of our strongest enemies," he replied to the short man. He was worried to say the least. If that was who he thought it was, then their battle against Yami would be a difficult one to win with her on their side.

Kenichi then walked up to the elder. "Uh, elder? What are we going to do with him?" he asked, pointing to Diego.

"Ah, He'll go to Big Lock, a special prison constructed for people like him," Hayato answered.

Kenichi looked a bit concerned. "Are you sure? He looks to be in really, really bad shape…"

Hayato flashed Kenichi a thumbs up. "We won't let him die! Because we're on the side of the katsujinken!"

Kenichi smiled at that. So did the others. "But damn," Bob muttered, scratching the back of his head, "what a crazy day…"

Now that Bob mentioned that, Kenichi felt pretty sore himself. "Y-Yeah. Ouch," he muttered as he now began to feel the pain of some of his injuries from his fight with the red feather. Miu and Renka began to quickly walk up to Kenichi's side, to see if he was alright, but then they were interrupted.

"Nooo…." They all turned towards a nearby flight of stairs in time to see a very sad Raichi and Shizuru walking up the steps, "the client was taken away! This is bad!" she whined, ignoring Shizuru's attempts at trying to cheer her up.

"Raichi-san! Shizuru-san! You're both alright!" Kenichi exclaimed, glad to see that the two were safe still.

Shizuru flashed him a tired smile. "Yeah. After we split up with you two," she motioned to him and then Miu, "we went after our client and got there in time to save him, but then a little while after that, we lost track of him…" Now she looked a little down.

Hayato let out a hearty laugh. "Don't worry, little girls. All the hostages are safe," he said. He pointed towards the ocean and all looked to see several small boats moving through the water on the way to the shore now.

At this, both girls lit up. "Yes!" Shizuru cried happily, pumping her right fist in triumph.

Raichi on the other hand ran up to Kenichi and grabbed hold of his hands before using her momentum to effectively have Kenichi spin her around. "Our job was a success!" she yelled in joy.

Shizuru simply giggled at this sight. As for Miu and Renka, a small yet rather dark Ki began to surround the two at the sight of Kenichi with Raichi, prompting Bob who was standing next to the two to move away.

Then once Kenichi and Raichi were done with what they were doing, the Ryozanpaku disciple immediately focused his attention on Renka. "More importantly, Renka, how could you go fight YOMI in my place?" he all but demanded.

Renka looked incredibly sheepish now, rubbing the back of her head while her two small twin tails began to move on their own like a cat's ears would. "I-It's fine, really!" she said, trying to placate the boy, "I had Bob here help me out!" she said, pointing at aforementioned teen.

Kenichi looked at Bob. "Really?"

Bob nodded. "Yeah. The masked bitch was tough, but we handled her pretty well," he replied with a smirk.

"I-I see," Kenichi said.

Renka took a step towards Kenichi. "But…" she began, smiling almost coyishly, "has this changed your opinion of me a little…?" she asked, trying to sound cute.

Unfortunately for her, during her fight with Rachel earlier, her outfit got more than little damaged. And now it chose this time to give way to the law of gravity, the bow that had tied the ends of it together around the back of Renka's neck now coming undone. The upper part of her outfit now drooped considerably, accidently flashing Kenichi.

Kenichi, though a gentleman, couldn't help it; he looked, his face frozen with shock and a blush. Miu and Raichi looked just as shocked as him, but unlike Kenichi, looked outraged. Shizuru and Bob merely looked amused by how this was going and Hayato and Kensei didn't seem that startled.

That is, until Renka realized two seconds later what happened. Panicking, she promptly poked Kenichi in the eyes, getting a cry of pain out of him. When he raised his hands to his eyes, Renka, still panicking, kicked him right in the groin, prompting a look of shock from Kensei and one of sympathy from Bob. Shizuru even cringed at the sight of the strong kick while Miu and Raichi were even more shocked by how this turned out.

Renka folded her arms across her chest, nearly crying. "Nooooo, don't look!"

"R-Renka, you can't kick that place!" Kensei tried to chastise her.

"Hm, how come you didn't dodge, Ken-chan?" Hayato asked.

"Kenichi!" Miu cried out in concern while Renka backed away, still covering herself. "Are you alright?!"

"Gh," he muttered, rubbing his eyes while also doubling over in great pain from the kick that he really wished to never experience ever again. "I-I'll be fine," he said rather feebly, not that any of them could blame him.

It took him nearly two whole minutes before he was able to stand almost upright again. He looked at Miu. "By the way…" he began slowly, still in pain, but it was fading now, "I think we're going to have to tell Souichiro-san about that guy from earlier…" he muttered. He felt that given his situation, Souichiro had the right to know that Yami was apparently keeping a few red feathers on their side despite Souichiro also more or less working for them too.

Miu nodded quietly. "I guess…" she replied.

However, Kenichi suddenly felt a hand clasp his shoulder. "Wait, did you just say Souichiro? As in the same Souichiro-kun I mentioned earlier?" Shizuru asked as Kenichi looked over his shoulder to see her staring right at him, confusion and curiosity in her eyes.

Kenichi suppressed the urge to groan; this wasn't what he had planned just now.

Meanwhile, the true warrior in question sneezed loudly and violently enough for him to unintentionally transform his long strands of hair into blades, accidently cutting down a nearby tree. "Guh, who's talking about me?" he muttered as his hair went back to normal.

He was just on his way back to his place after having seen Makoto off at her house. When they had arrived at her house and Makoto had paid the taxi driver, the man had driven off as though he was trying to escape the apocalypse. This left Souichiro with getting a good look at the modest home of Makoto, whom he uncharacteristically walked to the door.

He even had met her parents, Makoto's dad being a relatively tall man with an average build and dark brown hair while Makoto had clearly taken after her mom, who was not that much taller than her daughter, but with a more developed figure. Souichiro felt that Makoto was most likely eagerly awaiting a late growth spurt to look like her mom in terms of build; she had almost been on par with those two girls he saw with Kenichi that one time when he confront Chikage.

Naturally, the two parents had been pretty much terrified of him upon feeling his approaching Ki, but they thanked him nonetheless for being with Makoto on her way home. After that, he and Makoto had said their good byes and now here he was, walking.

Souichiro was a little lost in thought right now. During the ride home, Makoto had all but begged him to tell her what was bothering him, earnestly wanting to be of some help to him by serving as a listener to help him vent whatever frustration he had. And for one reason or another, he had complied. Granted, he left out a lot of details or changed some things around to avoid telling her about Yami, YOMI, or anything else that would have sounded crazy to a normal person, but even then he still mentioned to her of how he was confused over being part of a group that still seemed to not trust him too much save for a few people.

He even went as far to speak of things he hardly ever had time to think on, such as his mother's death and his, for lack of a better term, estranged father. Granted once again, he left almost innumerable details in the process of it, but Makoto seemed to get the gist of it to an extent. Souichio had felt… good, lighter following all of this talk in the cab as he never really had time to grieve over anything since his mental state wasn't exactly stable what with Sohaku and all.

What had surprised him though was that Makoto had actually shed a few tears when he spoke of his mom and dad. It even got to a point where it looked as though she was ready to hug him, though that was when the two had arrived at her house. When he had been about to leave, Makoto had smiled at him warmly before saying good bye, hoping that he too would be safe on his way home.

It sure was something to think about for him, though right now he had to snap out of his thoughts when he startled a cat nearby. The animal hissed in fright before fleeing from Souichiro's Ki. Souichiro merely sighed, having totally lost his train of thought just now because of that. "Still," he thought, "I never expected her to nearly cry…"

It appeared like it was that one fact that amazed him the most. In the little time he had known Makoto so far, he would have never expected that of her. It just went to show him that there was more to the girl than just the confident and stubborn side he's seen so far.

But that all more or less said, it did somewhat sadden him that he really couldn't tell her what exactly was going on, what with F and YOMI and everything else. Souichiro, as he continued to walk, hung his head down and sighed almost dejectedly. "Sometimes," he thought, "It's hard putting up with this shit. Very hard."

He briefly paused in his walking real quick to look up at the moon, which seemed to be glowing brightly tonight. "I wonder if senpai ever will be able to help me out here," he muttered to himself. This situation with him in YOMI certainly seemed to make things complicated, that much he could easily see.

What had him even more worried was Sohaku too. It's been a while since he felt him try anything, but now, it felt as though Sohaku's presence was slowly disappearing. Souichiro would have been happy about this if it wasn't for the fact that it was very creepy and most likely meant bad news considering how his dad is never without some sort of plan.

He sighed as he started to walk again. He could only hope that nothing crazy will be happening anytime soon. Unfortunately for him, this wouldn't be the case.

* * *

Damn, 17 pages total! This is the longest chapter I think I've done for this fic so far save for maybe two or three other chapters. It seems like lately I've just been starting to put more and more content in the chapters. Which isn't a bad thing really; let's me put in more surprises and stuff, ha ha ha.

Anyways, once again, my deepest apologies for the lateness of this chapter, just got busy with school and all as mentioned in the opening AN. That said, it looks like things are beginning to calm down at school now, but I doubt it will remain that way for the next few weeks. At any rate, I should hopefully be able to start the next chapter by sometime in April.

Until then, I hope you enjoyed this, drop a review, and take care!


	25. Chapter 25

Wow, I know I said I'd start the chapter in about April, but I never expected to be so accurate, ha ha ha. Anyways, chances are that this chapter is a few weeks late in being posted than I expected, mainly in part to a few essays I had to take care of in addition to about two or three tests. On the bright side, my semester is nearly over, which may or may not affect my writing of this fic.

And HOTD is finally back! A chapter was just recently released and wow, it looks promising. I just hope the author and artist can keep up a relatively consistent release schedule since the first part of HOTD they did was kind of sporadic in its releases.

Anyways, you didn't click on this fic to hear me speak of HOTD, so on to the chapter!

Chapter 25

Bunshichi took a quick puff of his cigarette as he simultaneously suppressed the urge to crack his neck in a bit of exasperation. It has been two days since he arrived to this town and after he had met up with those two guys following his taxi ride, the man had taken to calling up Maya. When he had done that, Maya had filled him in on what was going on and he ended up rooming at the same hotel as the Juken Club.

Though he didn't really show it, he was surprised when he first heard that the Juken Club was working alongside Ryozanpaku and he had stopped by there to meet them for himself while Kenichi and Miu were at school and it was there that he was fully brought up to speed on Yami and YOMI. It was at that moment that he fully realized the scope of this situation and it left him feeling a bit of a headache.

"Shit, Mitsuomi hadn't told me all of that…" he muttered under his breath. When Mitsuomi had sent him hear, the Takayanagi clan head had only told him just the very basic details of the situation since he wanted Bunshichi to hurry here.

And it was only now, taking a walk around the city that Bunshichi could appreciate what was going on. He sighed, ignoring as a few passer-bys walked around him, shooting him annoyed looks as he continued to smoke. He scratched the back of his head as he did so. "Man, so it looks like I came all this way just to be stuck on the sidelines," he thought, Maya having told him that she and the Juken Club was keeping watch on Souichiro along with the Shinpaku Alliance essentially doing the same for YOMI. Maya didn't really mention to him for him to do anything in particular other than that his presence was very much appreciated and that he can lend a hand whenever it was needed. The only problem with that was that he wouldn't really know when he would be needed; they all seemed to have it under control pretty damn well.

He sighed. "Well, at least I get a decent view of things," he thought a little lecherously as he ogled a few teenaged girls wearing short skirts just a bit further ahead of him. This trip might not be so bad for him after all.

Meanwhile, at school, Kenichi was feeling quite tired. The half hour or so that had followed the conclusion of events on the cruise ship had been spent reluctantly informing Shizuru and Raichi of what Souichiro was up to now, much to the expected shock of both girls. Shizuru had wanted to stay with Kenichi and the others to perhaps maybe lend a hand, and Raichi looked intrigued enough to want the same thing, but she had to get back to her dad and Shizuru had very reluctantly gone back with her. The two had parted ways with Kenichi and the others not long after that, Shizuru doing so with a still slack jawed expression, no doubt because of what her crush had apparently been up to. Kenichi felt sympathetic towards her naturally and so did the others who were perceptive enough to figure out how she felt about Souichiro as they noticed her expressions as Kenichi told her a bit of what was going on.

And as if that wasn't enough, Kenichi had taken all of one day to rest up from the hits he took on the cruise ship before his masters had spent the second past day starting up his training again, this time around tripling his training partially as punishment and also serving as an attempt to get him stronger faster after he and Miu had told them all of the red feather they had encountered along with the ensuing fight. That and Hayato also told them all that he actually knew who Mikumo was, noting how she had a disciple in YOMI as well. It took just hearing her last name for Kenichi and Miu to recognize the connection between Mikumo and Chikage. Add that in with the fact that Kenichi pretty much resolved himself to tell Souichiro himself of the red feather along with dealing with his classes and potentially having to deal with a challenge from Chikage now and it was understandable why he was so tired.

"Ughhhh…." He was still feeling a bit sore from training. He stretched his shoulders to try and work out the kinks.

"Are you alright Kenichi?" Miu asked concerned from where she was walking next to him.

He smiled at her tiredly, though trying to keep a blush from appearing on his face. "I'll be fine. Just tired is all." Ever since they got home from the cruise ship, Miu had been staying near him a bit more than usual, much to his surprise. The reason why he was blushing though was because not long after getting back to Ryozanpaku and started to get some rest, he unintentionally began to recall what Shizuru had said to him about him and Miu. And it was getting to him quite a bit now.

Miu smiled back at him. "Okay. But don't push yourself too much," she replied. Unbeknownst to Kenichi, Miu too was trying to fight back a blush as she recalled what Raichi had said regarding the Ryozanpaku disciple on the ship. What's more was that she saw Izumi earlier giving Kenichi longing glances, which incidentally brought the conversation to the forefront of her mind.

However, the moment between the two was cut short when they passed by Ethan in the hallway. Kenichi shivered slightly as he could feel just the slightest inkling of Ki off of the larger teen. "Sure hope he doesn't try anything soon. With all the training I'm being put through, I won't be healed up enough to fight," Kenichi thought, a tad bit nervous. Now that he passed by Ethan though, it occurred to him that since the cruise ship, Rachel hasn't shown up to school, most likely still in Yami's hands. This was a fact that the Shinpaku Alliance had taken note of almost immediately, Renka, who now hung out with them since she was in their school now, liked to think she and Bob had scared her away, but Kenichi couldn't help but worry a bit for Rachel; the emotionless eyes of Mikumo didn't exactly inspire confidence in Rachel's safety.

He sighed, doing his best to keep from grabbing at his hair in frustration at not really knowing what to do. "Argh, this is killing me! How do I deal with YOMI while thinking of a way to talk to Souichiro-san?!" Kenichi mentally agonized over. Though it would seem that simply talking to Souichiro would be the best way to do it, he couldn't risk it as despite his sympathy for the true warrior, Souichiro was still a part of YOMI. To go up to a member of said group was risking a battle and one against Souichiro was one he didn't want. He did contemplate maybe asking Makoto to tell Souichiro about the red feather, but that would potentially be putting her in danger and he didn't want that. "Why are things never simple?" Kenichi thought in defeat as he slumped forward now as he walked.

The rest of the school day went by relatively fast and eventually there was yet another break in between classes, enough for Kenichi to head to the restroom. He stopped though before fully going in as he noted Miu seemed like she was going to wait right outside the restroom for him. "Er… Miu, you don't have to do that…" he said sheepishly.

"But the balance in the school has already broken down. With three members of YOMI out of the picture for now, the others could strike any time," she reasoned, wanting to be safe than sorry.

Kenichi fully entered the restroom now and went towards one of the urinals. "But I could least go to the toilet by myself…" he said to her, feeling awkward at his crush essentially waiting outside the boys' restroom, "just head to your gymnastics club."

Miu looked ready to respond, but when a few students began to pass by and whisper a bit about her being near the boys' restroom, she blushed in embarrassment a bit and started to walk away.

That was when two people suddenly rushed past her. "Shit," one of them muttered in annoyance.

Miu froze for all of a split second as this suddenly registered in her mind. "What got past me?!" she wondered urgently and was about to whirl around and actually peek inside the restroom, but backed off in comical fashion when she heard a few more students whisper about her being there.

As for Kenichi, he was simply doing his business at the urinal when he suddenly felt a familiar Ki. He turned his head to the right in time to see both Ethan and Souichiro seemingly running straight at him. If it wasn't for the fact he was already at the urinal, he would have wet his pants most likely. "Oh crap! Were they waiting for this moment?!" Kenichi thought in near panic, memory once again striking him as he recalled Akisame mentioning how many martial artists would keep their guard up even during times of certain physiological functions. He was beginning to wish he had done the same.

However, much to his surprise, he heard Souichiro curse a bit, blowing his long hair out of his face as he and Ethan shot right past him and headed for the toilet stalls. Kenichi finished up his business and was immediately on edge as a minute later, both Souichiro and Ethan emerged from their stalls, sighing in relief. "Odd amount of synchronicity here…" Kenichi mildly noted despite the tense atmosphere.

Both of the YOMI teens ignored him in favor of washing their hands. "Last time I drink so much water before class," Souichiro muttered.

When it looked like nothing was going to happen, Kenichi slowly moved towards the sinks to wash his hands now, though he tried not to take his eyes off of the two. He did notice Souichiro glance at him briefly when he grabbed a few paper towels to wash his hands and he even nodded almost microscopically at him before leaving.

Kenichi cursed to himself as he realized a minute later that he just let a golden opportunity to tell Souichiro of the red feather slip right past him. However, Ethan was still in the restroom with him. "Shirahama," he said.

Kenichi tensed up again, but he didn't respond to Ethan verbally.

Ethan ignored his cautious gaze. "There is something I want to talk to you and Nagi about after school. If possible, just us men, no one to get in our way."

Kenichi stared at him for a few seconds in silence before finally responding. "Alright. Where at?"

Ethan nodded, seemingly pleased and named the place before taking his leave, leaving Kenichi alone in the restroom to mule over what could possibly happen now.

Elsewhere, specifically, at the Shinpaku Alliance headquarters, the Juken Club was there, currently relaxing while the actual members of the Shinpaku Alliance were at school still. Bob sighed. "Shit, that hurts," he muttered as he got up off the floor, slightly bruised.

Masataka smiled sheepishly. "Sorry about that, Bob." He offered him a hand up, which Bob took. Just moments prior to this, the two had been lightly sparring to pass the time.

"Eh, no pain no gain, right?" Bob replied as he got up. He groaned as he stood up and began to rub his leg a bit. "Still, sure would be nice to land some good hits on you in a spar one day."

From a couch nearby, Maya was laying lazily on it. "Well, you have been getting slowly better with every spar, so you shouldn't be too wishful on that," she said with a smile, "like I once told you, just take small steps towards your goal and eventually you'll get there."

Bob snorted. "Yeah, yeah."

The three of them then looked to another corner of the room where Kagesada could be seen punching away at a punching bag while Aya appeared to be meditating. However, the feel of her Ki was enough for everyone there to know what she was doing.

"Any luck?" Masataka asked her as Aya sighed and opened her eyes, revealing her Dragon Eyes activated. She turned them off as she stood and wiped away the slight sweat on her face.

She shook her head sadly. "No. The darkness won't budge," she replied tiredly and sadly. Ever since her small glimpse into Souichiro's mind and Ki, she kept the rest of the Juken Club apprised of what she felt during that time. They were just as confused, intrigued, and worried as Aya was, even moreso when further attempts by the younger Natsume sister failed to get any more success.

"Man, if it really isn't one thing, it's another…" Bob muttered while scratching the back of his head in frustration, "why can't this shit be easy from time to time?"

"Kinda nerve wracking, if you ask me," Kagesada said without stopping his own training.

Maya now sat up on the couch while Masataka simply handed Aya a towel to wipe away the sweat. "True. But still, we can't let this get to us. We have to figure out what's going on here with the kid, especially if we're going to take out Sohaku once and for all." She looked at her sister. "So you said that it felt like a portion of the kid's Ki was way different from the other half? And that it was going somewhere else, right?" she asked. She already knew what Aya was say, but she was just double checking.

"Yes," Aya said, smiling at Masataka in thanks for the towel. She quickly wiped her face and tossed the towel aside. "And thinking back on it now, the feel of the Ki that was Souichiro-sama's… something about it seemed more…. complete?" she said, the last word being uncertain.

This got everyone's attention now. Kagesada even stopped punching to listen attentively now. "Complete?" Masataka asked.

Aya shrugged her shoulders helplessly. "That's really the best way I can describe it. Before, when Souichiro-sama first became Susano-o, the feel of his Ki was naturally changed as a result of the transformation, but its… core, for lack of a better word was still his own. But now, even though the Ki still feels like his own, it's been completely saturated with all of the Ki he has consumed. The red feather abilities he has are most likely greatly strengthened as a result and probably don't even use up that much Ki anymore…"

Masataka's eyes narrowed. "So in other words, the true warrior is getting more and more perfect?" he asked slowly, not liking the sound of that. A quick glance to an equally worried Maya and Bob told Masataka that they though the same way.

Aya nodded. "Seems that way."

Bob groaned from where he stood and so did Kagesada. "Well shit…" both muttered in unison.

A sigh drew their attention though and all of them looked to see Shinichiro walk into the room. "Kurei-senpai, how did it go?" Aya asked the alien-like teen.

"Well, whatever Yami and YOMI are doing right now, they're doing an excellent job hiding any databases they may have. I've tried almost every trick I knew, but no luck yet. Chances are I won't be stumbling upon anything connected to them for quite some time now," he said, having been spending a good portion of the day trying to find and hack any computers and/or databases that Yami or YOMI may employ in their activities. After all, given the size and power of the groups, they had to have something like that.

Maya from her spot on the couch shook her head in exasperation. "Great. We're getting nowhere, not with the kid and not with Yami either. If this keeps up, we might as well just go for a suicide run at them to lure them out."

Masataka leaned up against a nearby wall and looked out a window. "I wonder…" he thought, "will we really be able to do this?"

A few hours pass and elsewhere, school has ended and Kenichi was now meeting with Ethan and Souichiro. The location for their talk was a café known as the Boston Tea Party. A waitress nervously handed the three teens their drinks, an earl grey for Ethan and a blue mountain tea for Kenichi. Souichiro ordered nothing, partly because he didn't want anything to drink and partly because the waitress had been too afraid to ask him.

Said teen leaned back slightly in his seat, making it creak under his Ki. "Alright, so why did you call him here? And why am I here too?" Souichiro asked the large teen next to him, as they were seated at a bit of a large table next to a window. Kenichi sat across from the two YOMI members.

Souichiro had been rather surprised when much earlier today, prior to their encounter with Kenichi in the restroom, Ethan had asked him to join this little meeting, provided Kenichi would join too. He had told the true warrior that if the talk with Kenichi didn't go as he would hope, then he'd need to ask Souichiro a favor, hence his presence here now.

However, Ethan seemingly ignored Souichiro for the moment and instead, tended to his tea and Kenichi's. "How many sugars?" Ethan asked Kenichi as he began to put some in his own.

"Two," Kenichi replied, the Ryozanpaku teen staring cautiously at the two across from him. "Just what do these two have planned?" he thought to himself.

As Ethan complied with his answer, the large teen spoke again. "Sorry, don't put yours in. I developed this habit of always putting in sugars for my sister," he said, his calm and even relaxed voice contrasting greatly with the oppressive force of Souichiro's Ki.

Kenichi and Souichiro merely raised an eyebrow at Ethan's words, honestly having not expected the large teen to be so soft spoken. "Really?" both of them said in unison.

Once again, Ethan seemed to ignore their words. Instead, he slowly stood. "Now…" he began as he suddenly moved forward fast.

Kenichi tensed, believing it to be an attack and began to prepare for this. Souichiro merely raised an eyebrow. "What? So I'm here as a witness or something?" he thought in slight annoyance.

However, this wasn't the case as it turned out Ethan was merely bowing to Kenichi, much to the Ryozanpaku disciple's shock and Souichiro's mild surprise. "I apologize for all the trouble my older sister has caused you. Though this is a bit late, it's nice to meet you!" Ethan said to Kenichi without ever changing his near stoic facial expression.

Kenichi and Souichiro just stared at him. "Say what?" Souichiro said slowly. He just sat there, staring critically at his fellow YOMI member. "What the hell?"

"Eh?" was all Kenichi himself was able to say. This was definitely not what he had expected.

Ethan now sat back in his seat and seemed to ponder something as he locked his hands together. "As long as she can get attention, my older sister doesn't care what happens to the rest of humanity…" he said, almost solemnly. Then he looked back at Kenichi. "But now, onto the reason behind this meeting. Due to fate, it seems that Nagi-san and I are your enemies in this situation. That said, putting aside YOMI's logic, I personally have no reason to hate you or view you as my enemy. I believe that this applies to Nagi-san as well," he said, looking over to a surprised Souichiro, who merely nodded his head in both agreement and confusion as to what Ethan was really getting at here.

"Thus, the reason I called you here is so that we can perhaps resolve this peacefully," Ethan finished, staring directly into Kenichi's eyes as he said this.

Kenichi could only gape. This was way beyond anything he could have expected. "So direct!" he thought. Outwardly though, he said something else. "Wow, this… this sounds great! But, I think it'd be best for me to hear the full proposal…" he said.

Ethan nodded. "Of course. My proposal is a simple, one where this finishes without either of us getting hurt."

Kenichi now began to get hopeful. "Really?! How can it be done?!" he asked, trying to hold back his joy at possibly being able to avoid at least one or two fights with YOMI.

"Yeah, how?" Souichiro truly spoke up for once in this conversation. "I'm not exactly interested in fighting for YOMI either right now," he said.

Ethan looked at both Kenichi and Souichiro, nodding in agreement. Then he spoke. "Could you please die?"

Kenichi and Souichiro just stared at the large teen, both with wide eyes. Souichiro even went as far to clean out his right ear with his right pinky. "I think I misheard you for a second there. Did you just tell this guy to die?"

Kenichi just sat there, stonefaced at what Ethan just said too, nodding dumbly with what Souichiro was saying.

Ethan blinked in surprise. "Ah, I may have worded that wrongly," he began, "basically, it would mean the extermination of the name of Shiraham Kenichi as a martial artist. You would quit martial arts, return to the life of a normal high school student and I would get Yami to treat you as if you had died somehow."

All three of them were silent for a few minutes as they digest what Ethan was saying. "So…" Souichiro began, now leaning forward in his seat as he thought, staring at Ethan all the while, "what you're really telling him is to quit that Ryozanpaku dojo he's part of?" he asked, showing off how perceptive he can be.

Ethan nodded. "From what we have been told, you didn't have the determination to completely give yourself up to martial arts when you first joined, correct? In that case, there is still time for you to return to a normal life." He stared at Kenichi. "You've fought enough. No one will blame you," he said, now fully laying his proposal out for Kenichi to think on.

Souichiro himself could only stare back and forth as Kenichi thought this over, still having a bit of a hard time believing what had just been said. "I don't think Shirahama is going to accept this…" he thought.

A few seconds later, Kenichi replied. "I see," he calmly started, "it's true that I think differently towards martial arts than what you guys think." He smiled. "But no, that's the only thing. I plainly refuse!"

Rather than be surprised, Ethan seems to have anticipated it. "As I thought, you also have something you must protect. That's unfortunate, but not entirely unexpected."

Kenichi nodded. "As much as I would like to not have to fight you, it looks like we have no choice in this."

"Very well then," Ethan responded. He reached into his pocket and pulled out his YOMI emblem. "In that case, I, Pollux of YOMI, challenge you." Then he turned to Souichiro. "And I would like you to be the one to be present when our fight takes place."

Souichiro snorted. "Figured as much," he muttered as he stood. "Fine. Just let me know when and where it'll take place later. I'm gonna get going," he said right before walking off, offhandedly waving to the two before quickly exiting the shop.

Kenichi took the emblem from Ethan. "Alright then, I accept," he said, his face showing his determination in this matter. "You just let me know when and where."

Ethan nodded before his cell phone rang. Taking it out and looking at the number, he stood to leave. "Hmm, well it looks like I will have to get going as well. My sister is currently in a precarious position and I have had to do many missions to try and solve all of this." He turned to leave. "I'll inform you later of when and where the fight will be. Until then, train hard, Shirahama Kenichi, for I will be doing the same to try and kill you." And with that, Ethan left, leaving Kenichi alone.

"Ah, excuse me…" Kenichi looked to his left to see the waitress from earlier shuffle on over to where he is. She looked considerably relieved now that Souichiro was gone.

"Yes?" Kenichi politely asked.

The waitress smiled politely, but sheepishly as well. "Will you be paying for the drinks?" She then gestured to his tea and Ethan's, which they had pretty much left untouched for the entirety of their conversation.

"E-Eh?! They're sticking me with the bill?!" Kenichi thought, realizing now too late that the YOMI members had left him with the admittedly cheap tab. Grumbling slightly under his breath as he proceeded to get the money out to pay, Kenichi vowed to be more careful when situations like this ever come up again.

Now back at the Shinpaku Alliance headquarters, now that school was out, all of the members had now reconnoitered there, meeting up with the Juken Club.

"Well, bad news first, if Yami and/or YOMI have a database that they have something filed away on, I didn't manage to find it," Shinichiro said as now they were all gathered around in the same room, with the Juken Club along with Nijima, Takeda, Ukita, Kisara, Kaname, Hibiki and Chiaki near the small and older teen while the rest of the members such as Matsui, Kumokawa, and the Valkyries were all near the walls of the room, listening. Miu and Renka were also there as well, having been called there after school let out.

Shinichiro's statement wasn't exactly well-received. "So we're still in the dark on what those guys have planned next," Kisara muttered angrily.

Nijima sighed. "It can't be helped. After all, it'd be odd if it were easy." The taller alien-like boy now smiled. "On the other hand, there is a bit of good news."

Everyone perked up at that, save for the Juken Club. They already knew what he was about to say. "Oh yeah? What?" Ukita asked.

Nijima chuckled a bit. "Those red feathers that Nagi was said to have hunted down? Apparently there are more out there. Kenichi even fought one of them."

At that, just about everyone was shocked. "So there are others like that Nagi guy?!" Ukita yelled in shock.

"That doesn't sound comforting…" Kaname muttered, folding her arms under her breasts as she spoke.

"Ah, no it's not like that," Masataka said as he now moved next to Nijima. "Like we explained once, Nagi has the power of thousands of red feathers due to his own unique red feather ability, the Dragon Fist, which his family line has. Other red feathers just have one ability. So it isn't as bad as it seems."

"Masataka is right, there's really nothing much to worry about as far as that goes. I bet there was only just the one too," Maya said as she thought on it from where she was standing. "And even if the one Kenichi fought wasn't the only one that Yami has under its employ, it shouldn't make that big a difference in the long run."

Nijima now full out laughed. "She's right. And not only that, but Nagi is supposed to be helped by Yami in getting these red feathers. If he were to find out that they were holding out on him…"

Everyone, the Juken Club too this time around, now stared at the Shinpaku Alliance general. "Wait up," Bob said, "you planning to try and turn Souichiro against them…?" he asked.

Nijima cackled. "Yep! It's clear that when he feels emotion nowadays, he feels it bad. If he finds out Yami isn't helping him anymore, then he's going to be angry. Angry enough to perhaps turn on them. This is a good thing to take advantage of!" he explained.

"Are you crazy, alien?!" Ukita yelled, "you really think he's just gonna join us or something if you tell him that?!"

"Not to mention we still need to deal with Sohaku too. And being around us only seems to make things worse for Souichiro-sama," Aya pointed out.

"But still, we could use all the help against YOMI," Nijima replied.

"But isn't it kind of wrong to try something like that?" Miu asked, concerned. Part of her was concerned because of what Aya pointed out; Souichiro being around the Juken Club and even the Shinpaku Alliance themselves isn't going to do him much good. Another part of her was concerned for her friends though. As was pointed out a few times by the Juken Club, Sohaku is still apparently trying to take control of Souichiro's body. If that occurred while around them, then they were all in danger.

Nijima was about to respond to that, but then stopped. "Hmm?"

"What is it?" Maya asked.

Nijima smirked. "Heh, he's close by," he said aloud, more to himself than to anyone else. His ears twitched in an inhuman-like manner.

Beside him, so did Shinichiro's ears. "Huh, he's right. Nag is close by," he agreed.

"Relatives. They have to be relatives somehow," everyone thought as they watched the two.

Nijima chuckled to himself. "Here's my chance," he thought and he peered out the nearest window in time to see Souichiro round the corner of the street. It was at this point that they were all able to feel his Ki now, the Valkyries and Matsui and Kumokawa nearly passing out from it.

"Shit, this is crazy…" Ukita muttered, trying not to shiver.

"Well, at least today won't be a boring day," Takeda said with a strained smile.

Nijima suddenly took off out the door, surprising everyone. "Huh?! Hey, wait!" Masataka yelled after him and proceeded to give chase. Though he didn't really say anything during Nijima's talk just now, he didn't exactly agree with what Nijima had planned. Souichiro was just too unstable at the moment to be dealt with.

"Masataka!" Maya yelled after him, but he didn't show any sign of having heard her. "Tch!"

"We should go after them," Kisara said. Like Ukita, she was trying not to shiver as well.

Everyone else looked ready to agree with this, but Maya held up a hand, making them stop moving. "No. no, it's best just to wait and see what happens for now. The last thing we need is the kid thinking we're attacking him or something. All we can do is just hope those two don't do anything really stupid," she said, albeit grudgingly.

"And what if they do piss him off?" Bob asked.

Maya gritted her teeth, not feeling entirely confident in Nijima and Masataka. "Then I guess we're gonna have a serious fight on our hands."

Outside the Shinpaku Alliance headquarters, Souichiro approached, having naturally come from the café where he had been with Kenichi and Ethan. "Huh. Me as a witness to the fight? That sure is new to me," he thought in mild amusement as he had never really been one to just be on the sidelines. Willingly at least. He also had to admit a little grudgingly that the fight probably would help take his mind off things for a bit. While he really did feel doubtful over staying with YOMI and Yami, he was willing to stick with them for just a bit longer in order to see if perhaps something would happen to change his mind.

As he continued to walk down the street, he actually took note of the building he was about to pass right in front of a moment later. "Son of a…" he growled as he realized where he was.

What's more, was that at this exact moment, Nijima made his appearance. "Yo!" he said very confidently to the true warrior, now walking up to him.

Upon seeing Nijima, Souichiro's eyes narrowed and his Ki rose slightly, making the alien-like teen falter a tiny bit in his steps, but Nijima kept up his confident front. "Besides…" he thought, knowing that Masataka had chased after him and was now keeping a bit of distance between them by staying out of sight near the corner of the headquarters building, having run right around said corner the second he was outside in order to avoid Souichiro seeing him. Thankfully, Souichiro was focused entirely on him. "if things go south, he can bail me out," he thought.

"What do you want, you damn alien?" Souichiro all but demanded. He remembered when he had tried and failed to catch this guy when he had chased him all that time ago and that little failure combined with the fact Nijima had been trying to spy on him at the time was something Souchiro was having a bit of trouble letting go.

Nijima chuckled and actually took a few more steps towards Souichiro. From his hiding spot, Masataka shook his head in amazement. "Wow. He's actually getting closer to him despite not being a fighter. He's either crazy or braver than I thought he was," he muttered to himself, tensing up in case he had to rescue Nijima. He certainly wished it wouldn't have to come to that or else he'd be risking a possible fight with Souichiro and that would be very dangerous under these circumstances.

"Oh, I want nothing from you, if that's what you mean," Nijima began, inwardly cackling. While approaching Souichiro like this was definitely a very bold and equally risky move on his part given their last encounter, Nijima knew that given the true warrior's current state of emotional confusion what with Sohaku and all, then telling him about the red feather from the cruise ship could be exactly what is needed to turn him against YOMI and Yami. While it may not lead to Souichiro joining the Shinpaku Alliance and could very well backfire on him spectacularly, it was a risk that he was willing to take. "But, there is something I would like to tell y-," he began to say, but didn't finish when Souichiro took an intimidating step towards him.

"You? Tell me something?" Souichiro questioned. "And what would that be? And why?"

Nijima took a step back, trying not to let his nervousness show. "Heh heh heh, what, is there something wrong with me giving you a bit of info?"

"Considering I'm part of a group meant to kill you and the rest of your Shinpaku Alliance? Yeah," Souichiro retorted.

Nijima chuckled yet again. "Fair point. But still, what do you lose from listening?"

"Aside from a few minutes of my life?" Souichiro shot back without missing a beat.

"Come on. It actually is something you should know though," Nijima said, his smile dropping enough for Souichiro to see that he was indeed quite serious.

He stared at Nijima, the general of the Shinpaku Alliance not backing down from the intensity of the true warrior's gaze. "Fine then," Souichiro eventually grumbled out. He put his hands in his pockets, now waiting for Nijima to say what he wanted to say.

Nijima now smiled, having Souichiro right where he wanted him, more or less. Up from the window of the headquarters, some of the main members of the Shinpaku Alliance and Juken Club watched in apprehension. "Sure hope shit doesn't hit the fan," Bob muttered as he was one of the ones closest to the window to see this.

"It has to do with those red feathers you've been looking for," Nijima began.

Now that sure grabbed the true warrior's attention. "What about it?" he asked.

"Were you aware that there was apparently still one around?" Nijima asked, wanting to drag this on a bit.

Souichiro leaned away from Nijima, shocked. He had thought just about every red feather had either had their power taken from them by him or were very well hidden. But Nijima apparently knew of where one was? Suddenly, a surge of urgency and slight anger made itself known in Souichiro. He could feel Sohaku deep within his mind reacting to the word of red feathers as well. "What do you mean?" Souichiro demanded, suddenly getting in his face.

Nijima's eyes widened as he gazed into Souichiro's now threatening and demanding eyes, backing away. from where he hide, Masataka tensed, cursing under his breath as he could tell that things were really reaching a boiling point here.

Nijima tried to keep from gulping. "What I mean…" he began slowly, reevaluating how things were going, "is that very recently, my buddy Kenichi along with a few others actually ran into one of these red feathers while aboard a cruise ship. I think you know what I'm talking about," he finished.

And Souichiro did know what he meant; he and the rest of YOMI knew of Diego Carlo's plan with that bomb of his along with how Rachel had been taken by Mikumo back to Yami. It was Rachel's confinement that was causing Ethan to take on extra missions lately.

"Anyways," Nijima said to get Souichiro out of his thoughts. "This red feather they encountered… he works for Yami."

Souichiro at first didn't seem to react to this statement, his mind slowly digesting it. It was only several seconds later that the shock finally hit him. His eyes widened and he was actually a bit slack jawed. "What?" he quietly said.

Nijima opted to not speak, simply content with just letting Souichiro slowly take this in. He just hoped this wouldn't backfire on him.

Everyone else watched with bated breath as well, looking on as Souichiro simply stood there like a statue. "Is he going to attack?" Takeda muttered to no one in particular, getting antsy from the suspense. As he expected, no one answered him.

As for Masataka, he gulped, now seriously not liking this situation. While he had confidence in Nijima to an extent, he just felt it in his bones that this was going to end badly one way or another.

As for Souichiro himself, he was stupefied. "Yami… they have a red feather on their payroll?" he thought slowly. He had suspected for a while that they weren't exactly putting forth their full efforts in helping him look for red feathers, but for them to keep this sort of information hidden from him… he didn't know why, but it felt like a huge slap in the face. And like others would sometimes feel following this sort of feeling, he began to feel angry.

He moved towards Nijima, doing so at such surprising speeds that only Masataka, Maya, Miu, and Renka were able to actually see him move. To everyone else, it was as if one second he was standing like a statue and the next split second he was literally inches away from Nijima. Nijima himself was shocked at the speed.

If he had words for this, he didn't get a chance to voice them for that was when Souichiro suddenly grabbed a fistful of the front of his shirt and lifted him high off the ground. When this happened, Souichiro's hair began to whip around wildly, the tips of the large strands of hair turning into blades while his Ki also increased. Nijima broke out into a very cold sweat as it began to feel as if death itself was gripping him. "Where the fuck do they have this red feather?" Souichiro demanded coldly.

Nijima started to stutter, his mind working at lightning speeds to try and figure out a way to escape here. His mind was coming up blank. "I-I-I don't know," he replied, now panicking and trying to struggled out of his own shirt to try and escape.

"You're lying," Souichiro growled out, not believing him for one second. "Where is that red feather? Does Yami have more of them working for them?!" He was still virtually growling this out, but he might as well have been yelling because of how angry and intense his voice sounded. It didn't help that he was now shaking Nijima like a leave in anger now.

"I. Don't. Know!" Nijima managed to say despite being shook so much.

Souichiro was beginning to see red just a bit. His mind, which had become somewhat fragile as a result of the constant worry and fear of Sohaku taking over, of perhaps being forced to fight his – in his mind – former club and even worse potentially end up killing them, of potentially hurting others that have nothing to do with this, was beginning to reach its breaking point. It was why he was usually so calm and relatively leveled headed ever since joining YOMI; he had needed to try and keep his mind off of these sorts of things, but not anymore.

He snarled and reared back his left fist, clenching it tightly. And the fist was aimed right at Nijima's face. The general of the Shinpaku Alliance realized immediately what was about to happen: Souichiro was going to beat him to a bloody smear on the pavement. He was looking at his own death straight in the eyes.

Or at least, that's what Nijima would have been doing had an elbow not suddenly smash into the right side of Souichiro's head. The attack was so sudden that it knocked Nijima loose of Souichiro's vice grip and even sent the true warrior Susano-o skidding several feet.

Souichiro immediately recovered from the surprise attack, the elbow strike having actually hurt him a little bit. He turned to see who had hit him. His eyes widened in surprise before narrowing. "Senpai," he growled.

There, standing now next to a stunned Nijima was Masataka, who had jumped out of his cover and struck right before Souichiro could punch the former. "Hey Nagi," Masataka greeted, taking up his usual fighting stance.

Souichiro's right eyebrow twitched in anger at the interference and he proceeded to open his mouth and stick out his tongue, ready to make Masataka stand down using the Dragon's Roar. Masataka tensed as Souichiro did so and he spotted the familiar marking on the true warrior's tongue, but much to his surprise, it was faded.

Souichiro prepared to use it. "Back off," he growled out as he activated the technique. Or rather he attempted to.

His eyes widened in shock as he suddenly felt a sort of disruption in his own Ki. The Dragon's Roar was one of a very small number of abilities and techniques he had absorbed that still seemed to require Ki to use, but right now when he attempted to use it, nothing happened, Ki simply gathering into the marking on his tongue, but not activating. "What the hell?!" he thought.

Masataka was just as surprised too. "It's not working….? What's going on?" he thought, refusing to drop his guard. Instead, he put up his guard even further, preparing himself for the inevitable attack.

Souichiro closed his mouth in shock and just stared at Masataka. "Senpai… now really isn't a good time to be around me," he said.

"I can tell," Masataka replied. He paused for a minute. "Something is wrong with your powers?"

"I'm telling you, senpai, back off. I'm not gonna tell you again," the true warrior retorted, ignoring Masataka's question. It wasn't as if he knew the exact answer to that question anyway.

Masataka shook his head. "Sorry, but I can't do that."

Souichiro bristled, signified by how his hair began to flail about again. The ground beneath Souichiro's feet began to gain spider-web cracks as his Ki shot up in proportion to his growing anger. "Have it your way then," he growled out before he got ready to lunge.

But before he could even move forward, having been so utterly focused on Masataka proved to be a mistake on his part.

Bob made a sudden appearance, unleashing a powerful roundhouse kick that made Souichiro instinctively move back a bit to avoid it. "Bob?!"

As Bob's attack missed and he returned to a fighting stance, he replied to Souichiro. "It's not just me here either," he said.

It was at that point that Souichiro finally turned and saw everyone that had come running out of the Shinpaku Alliance headquarters. Now flanking his left side was roughly all of the powerhouses of the Shinpaku Alliance, that being Takeda, Ukita, Kisara, Kaname, Hibiki, Chiaki, Miu, and Renka. And they weren't alone either as Maya and Aya were also there, now moving near Bob. Kagesada and Shinichiro had apparently opted to stay behind in the building alongside the Valkyries, knowing that they wouldn't contribute to what was to come next. This would have applied to Ukita too if it wasn't for his insistence in fighting alongside his comrades.

Souichiro gaped a bit at Maya and Aya. "Captain…? Aya…?" he muttered, shocked that they were here as well.

Both of the Natsume sisters looked downcast. "Souichiro-sama," Aya muttered sadly. She knew that right now, Souichiro was far from stable and posed a danger to everyone in the area, but still she wished that she wouldn't have to fight against him.

Maya herself was sad as this was first and foremost a fight that she had wished to avoid. "Hey kid," she said with a strained smile.

Souichiro merely stared at them for a moment before his eyes narrowed again. "So this is how things have to be, huh?" he muttered before sighing.

Maya nodded. So did Masataka, but Souichiro didn't see him do so. "It seems that way." She covertly signaled Nijima, who was still sitting unceremoniously on the ground. Nijima noticed her doing so a second later and saw that she was gesturing for him to get back inside the Shinpaku Alliance headquarters. He hesitated for a few seconds before finally nodding and making a run for it. Souichiro didn't notice this. "I really didn't want things to turn out this way," Maya said a moment later after seeing Nijima make it to the building safely.

Souichiro nodded in agreement. "Neither did I. But I guess it's too late for that," he said. He looked down at the ground. Everyone tensed. A minute later, Souichiro looked back up at Maya before shifting his gaze to look over everyone around him.

"Alright then," he said, clenching his fists even tighter than they already were. "Let's do this."

That was when the fight began.

* * *

Holy shit, 16 pages! By far the possibly second longest chapter for this fic! I can honestly say that I wasn't expecting this chapter to be this long.

Moving on though, with this chapter now done, I will be proceeding to work on a little personal side project of mine for a while before getting back to this fic as is now the norm for me. Given the fact that my semester is now nearly over, this should hopefully mean that I will be able to pick up my writing pace a bit more, but since I will more than likely be looking for a job this summer, I can't guarantee anything.

With that said, thank you to those that follow me or this fic, thanks to those that favorite this fic or even me (seriously, I love you guys), thank you to those who even simply read this fic! You all have no idea how much it means to me to see that you read this fic and (hopefully) enjoy it!

Until the next chapter, I hope you all take care and be sure to drop a review!


	26. Chapter 26

Damn, finally done with the semester. With this one done, I have no completed my second year of college! Oh how the time flies right on by. Rather scary in retrospect given how fast things seem to be moving along. And on another related note, I think I did pretty damn well this semester! And to think at the beginning that I had a severe case of self-doubt, ha ha ha.

Anyways, now this right here is a chapter that I had definitely been looking forward to writing. This chapter for sure marks the true beginning of the turning point for my fic as things that took place in HSDK will start to really turn out differently. For now though, after this battle, you can expect events to proceed more or less the same as in the manga, but rest assured: THINGS WILL CHANGE!

With that now said, I hope you enjoy the chapter!

Chapter 26

Masataka was the first of them all to move in. He moved in as fast as he can, appearing as nothing more than a slight blur to the fighters of the Shinpaku Alliance. For he knew better than anyone just how powerful and dangerous Souichiro really was. Wasting so much as a second could be disastrous.

Souichiro for his part didn't move from his position and instead waited for the older teen to approach. As Masataka finally closed in, Souichiro reared back a fist and punched forward with roughly half his strength.

Masataka's eyes widened at the approaching fist, but he managed to recover from his surprise in time to sidestep the punch, smacking it aside as hard as he can. It proved to be a smart move on his part as the punch was strong enough to generate a truly devastating amount of air pressure, blasting all the way straight, cracking up the ground horrifically and causing a few of the fighters closest to its path, such as Kaname, Chiaki and Bob to nearly go flying from the sheer force of it.

"Holy…" Bob started to mutter as he went sailing back, landing several yards away from where he was standing beforehand.

Masataka and Souichiro paid no attention to this though as the former still moved in, undeterred by the attack. He lashed out with a fierce knee to Souichiro's midsection, only to almost immediately draw his knee back when a dark substance suddenly formed on the true warrior's stomach and took on the form of some kind of demonic dog, trying to bite his leg apart.

"Whoa!" Masataka had to jump back as the creature actually seemed to extend itself to try and get him.

"Senpai!" Aya cried out as she made her move now, rushing Souichiro from behind. She had taken advantage of the time just now to get behind him in the first place.

Said teen had been so focused on Masataka that he hadn't noticed the girl at all until it was too late. Aya, who had her sword with her, in one very fluid motion, pulled the blade, sheath and all, out of the clothe she had it wrapped in and unsheathed said sword and swung it down at Souichiro's right shoulder.

"Urgh!" Souichiro called off his attack on Masataka and leapt to his left to avoid the attack. Though he doubted the blade would have been able to actually hurt him, he didn't feel up to risking it.

In the process of dodging, he was once again attacked upon, this time by two people he thought would have tried to attack him later on. "Great, you two," he muttered.

Charging straight at him were none other than Miu and Renka. The two girls, though more than startled by the short beginning of this battle, had refused to let this opportunity to pass up and thus their current attempt. The two powerful disciples leapt up several feet into the air effortlessly and now were performing diving kicks at the true warrior.

At the same time, Aya recovered from her missed sword swing and was now swinging once more at Souichiro's right side. Masataka too was also moving as quickly as possible, going from being on the retreat to moving to Souichiro's left to flank him.

Now Souichiro was effectively dealing with an attack from all main sides. Hissing in annoyance, Souichiro simply did a few things: firstly, he deal with Masataka's attack as he was the fastest of the attackers, easily being at high expert level speeds. He hit Masataka with a vicious left backhand that struck him in the side of the face hard enough to send him flying out to the street. The true warrior then proceeded to actually catch both of the kicks coming from the front and flung Miu and Renka away while simply letting Aya strike him. The sword nearly broke against his hard skin.

This all took place in less than a split second.

Aya's eyes widened at the near breaking of her sword and retreated as fast as she could, moving towards the others who all stood there in stunned silence.

"Holy shit," Takeda muttered, having not so much as moved an inch from where he had been.

He soon cursed himself as his words seemed to get Souichiro's attention, who promptly faced him and opened his mouth. Takeda tensed up, ready for anything. Or so he thought.

Out of Souichiro's now open mouth suddenly spewed out a torrent of flames, moving at near sound speed towards the now stupefied boxer. Takeda proceeded to run to his right, moving as fast as he could to avoid the literally incoming fire and just narrowly managed to avoid it. the flames went right past him, the heat of it so intense that he could have sworn it felt like they had hit for a second or two.

"He can breath fire?!" Ukita yelled in complete and utter disbelieve from where he stood. But he shook off said disbelieve as quickly as he could. Souichiro had just attacked Takeda of all people, his best friend for crying out loud. Though the enemy was far out of his league, he couldn't just stand where he was and do nothing.

So with a battle cry, Ukita did something that even in the back of his mind he found to be positively suicidal: he ran straight at the true warrior Susano-o.

"Ukita!" Kisara cried out from where she stood and she took off running after him.

Kaname, having finally gotten up from her fall just now too, disoriented, heard Kisara's cry and whipped her head towards them in shock. "No."

Gripping her staff tightly, the former third fist of Ragnarok leapt to her feet and ran after the two as well.

But it was too late.

By the time she had gotten up and started running, Ukita had already reached Souichiro, who hadn't bothered to attack or move after his previous attack. "Take this!" Ukita roared as he intended to grab one of Souichiro's arms and shoulder toss him.

Much to the large teen's surprise, the true warrior put up no resistance and actually let his right arm get grabbed. "Ah to hell with it," Ukita thought as he tried to toss him now.

But when he tried this, he found himself unable to toss Souichiro; it was as if he was trying to toss building. "Heavy…" Ukita thought as he struggled.

He froze for a second as he heard Souichiro sigh in what could have been disappointment. "Just fuck off already." Souichiro's right arm suddenly shifted and changed, taking on the same demonic dog like form from before. And the newly formed creature's mouth was right next to Ukita's face.

But before Ukita could feel its teeth sink in, Kisara finally caught up. "Back off!" She jumped a few feet into the air and spun around, delivering the strongest kick she could muster to Souichiro's face.

Souichiro let the kick hit him and he remained unaffected by it. For Kisara though, this was not the case. "Gah!" she cried out in pain. It felt as though she just tried to kick through thick, tempered steel. She ended up falling back, holding her leg slightly.

"Kisara! You alright?!" Ukita yelled in worry. Upon the girl being hurt, he totally forgot where exactly he was at for a second. This was a grave mistake on his part.

Since he was unaffected by the kick, Souichiro continued on with what he was doing, though with a slight change in attack. His demonic dog altered its direction and bit into Ukita's left shoulder before the teen could so much as think of backing away. the large teen cried out in pain as the large and sharp fangs of the demonic dog sunk in a few inches.

But rather than eat away at him, the creature lifted Ukita up right off the ground and threw him directly at Kisara. Both of the teens cried out in shock, but were silenced quickly when Ukita crashed right into her, the two now skipping across the ground like rocks across a lake.

This was the sight that had greeted Kaname as she ran past the two injured teens. "Kisara, Ukita!" she muttered under her breath as she slowed to a stop.

She glanced at them briefly, but then she felt her danger sense go off and she jumped back a few feet just in time to avoid one of Souichiro's large hair strands, which had morphed into its blade form, attempting to strike at her feet.

"Urgh." Kaname took up a battle stance, holding the end of her staff right at Souichiro, who merely stared at her. His gaze unnerved her greatly, but she tried to remain calm as she knew any rash moves on her part will be her undoing. "Both Miu and Renka are still out of it," she thought as she spared just the tiniest and briefest of glances towards said girls, who were still shaking off their disorientation. Though both girls were remarkably resilient and powerful disciple level martial artists, the force that Souichiro had thrown them with was not something that could be shaken off so lightly.

"Masataka-san is still out of commission so far while everyone else is hesitant to attack," she continued in her thoughts. Her grip on her staff tightened. "This is bad. No, beyond bad. He's clearly far beyond our capabilities to handle even with our numbers advantage. The only reason why we have yet to actually lose is because he's toying with us," she thought.

"You going to attack?" Kaname was snapped out of her thoughts by Souichiro, who was now tilting his head to the right in seemingly near boredom.

Once again, she found it hard not to shiver under his stare. She idly noted that he has yet to blink so far throughout this fight – "No, more like a massacre waiting to happen," she thought – which only added to the dark and eerie feel his Ki gave off.

"If you won't make a move," Souichiro said after a moment of pure silence, save for the shifting forms of the other fighters, who made ready to attack if necessary. "Then I'll move."

Before Kaname knew it, Souichiro's face was mere inches from her own. And he had his right fist reared back.

Up in the Shinpaku Alliance headquarters, Kagesada and Shinichiro watched in continually growing worry as they watched Masataka, who had just recovered from the blow earlier, perform a last second save for Kaname by nearly jumping in between her and Souichiro and smacking upwards the latter's fist. The two winced in sympathy for Masataka when Souichiro, unfaltered, kicked him in the gut and sending him flying into the person he had just saved.

"Shit, this isn't going well," Kagesada muttered, sweat rolling down the side of his face in worry.

Shinichiro nodded from next to him. "Yes. Regardless of their numbers advantage, Nagi is too strong for them to handle at all."

Kagesada looked at him. "Then why not call up Bunshichi to lend them a hand?!"

Shinichiro sighed almost wearily. "Because while Bunshichi helping them out would most likely make a difference," he began, wincing as he watched Chiaki and Hibki were making their move now, the latter letting out his usual battle cry in the process only for Souichiro raise a hand and the ground beneath the two Shinpaku Alliance members exploded, sending the two flying back in obvious pain. "If Nagi decides to take this fight more seriously, by the time Bunshichi gets here, it'll be too late. And even if I called him and he got here in time to help, the collateral damage that would result from a fight between those two would be immense," the short boy finished.

Kagesada made a tight fist in anger. "Damn it, so all we can do is just stay here and watch?"

"Seems that way. The two of us, along with those girls," Shinichiro replied, motioning to the Valkyries who were watching the battle as well in worry, "simply aren't strong enough to make much of a difference."

"He's right." Everyone there turned to see Nijima enter the room, the general of the Shinpaku Alliance looking rather shaken up. They couldn't blame him given how close to death he had come right before this.

"You took your time getting back up here," Kagesada commented.

Nijima ignored him, instead glancing out one of the windows to observe the fight. Right now, Bob, Aya, Miu, and Renka were trying to team up on him, but Souichiro was proving to be too fast, durable, and versatile for any of their attempted attacks to work. But this wasn't the focus of Nijima's gaze. "Why is your captain hanging back from the fighting?" he questioned.

"Eh?" Kagesada and Shinichiro replied.

Nijima pointed and the two followed his finger until they saw Maya. Indeed, the older Natsume sister was a considerable distance away from where Souichiro was, hanging back while everyone else around her was trying to find an opening to attack. Out of all the combatants against Souichiro, she was the only one to not sport some kind of injury, be it a scratch from a bad landing or a bruise from a barely avoided punch or kick like everyone else.

"What the hell is Maya doing?" Kagesada asked, leaning forward out the window to get a better look. He could see from the miserable look on the girl's face that she clearly resented her current position, but still, she refrained from moving a single inch.

Shinichiro opted not to comment just yet. Observing her closely, he could feel Maya actually building up her Ki. "Looks like she has something in mind," he muttered, just loud enough for the other observers to hear.

"What do you mean?" Nijima asked.

"Yeah, what's she planning?" Kagesada also asked.

Shinichiro moved back from the window, deep in thought. He mentally went through a list of the techniques that Maya knew, but the ones he could remember her knowing weren't strong enough to do any sort of lasting damage against the true warrior. He also knew that Maya knows this too. "So what is she building up her Ki for?" he questioned silently to himself.

He looked back at the girl, whose fists were clenched tightly. Suppressing an urge to sigh, all he could do was wait and watch. "Whatever you have planned Maya, I sure hope it'll be worth it," he muttered.

Back with the fight, just about all of the participating fighters were beaten up quite a bit, with a number of them sporting bruises from some of Souichiro's punches or kicks while others looked scratched up, from being thrown around so much in addition to some clothing damage, a result of having the misfortune of crashing into the ground at odd and painful angles.

Nonetheless, the damage they all have taken thus far has yet to really deter them from fighting. Takeda and Kisara were prime examples of this. "Niren Sandan Blow!" Takeda cried out as he executed several jabs in rapid succession, moving in a close circle around Souichiro.

Kisara herself executed a Chatora Narechagi, a particularly powerful kick, as well, letting out a battle cry in the process.

However, the two were met with failure as Takeda's blows struck Souichiro, but to no effect as the true warrior merely shrugged off the jabs as though they weren't there. As for Kisara's kick, Souichiro caught her foot with his right hand, stopping the girl dead cold before he tossed her aside like a ragdoll.

He followed this up by taking a few steps forward and headbutting Takeda too, a sickening crack ringing out through the area as his forehead met Takeda's. Said boxer went nearly sailing back, the only reason why he didn't go flying being because that wasn't Souichiro's aim. The true warrior once again closed the distance between the two and delivered a very sudden roundhouse kick that connected with Takeda's left side, knocking him into the air and right into Bob, the two men crashing to the ground.

"Furinji Kouhou Yoku!" Souichiro promptly looked up upon hearing this and immediately found himself wondering if this had been wise. The reason behind this being that right above him, Miu had taken advantage of his attack just now to make her own move. The granddaughter of the Invincible Superman had her left leg sticking up while the other was straight down and to add to this, the girl was spinning too at impressive speeds for a disciple class martial artist.

"What the fu-?" Souichiro began to say upon seeing this odd move, only to be cut off as Miu's pivot leg made contact with his face. Due to her spinning, Miu was essentially a drill at this point as her pivot leg spun away on Souichiro's face, this strike meant to deal heavy damage to an opponent.

Indeed, it actually seemed to work as the true warrior stumbled a bit under the attack, forcing Miu to adjust her balance in the process.

"Alright, you got hi-," Ukita began after seeing Souichiro seemingly hurt, only to stop when the hair strands of Souichiro wrapped themselves around Miu, stopping the girl's attack.

"Uwah!" Miu cried out at being stopped so suddenly, but before she could try to counter this, Souichiro's hair strands extended themselves considerably and smashed her right into and through a nearby wall before letting go.

Everyone looked on in shock as most of them, namely the members of the Shinpaku Alliance, were good friends with the young Furinji. "You-!" Renka started as she charged at Souichiro now.

Aya charged at Souichiro as well. "Souichiro-sama…" she muttered, "though it pains me to fight you… you have to be stopped!"

Both girls ran full speed at Souichiro, but with a mere wave of a hand, a large number of plant roots appeared from under the ground and wrapped themselves around Aya's feet, bringing the girl to a painful stop by her stumbling forward and crashing face first into the ground. Her sword, which she had been preparing to swing, went flying from her hands in the process.

As for Renka, Souichiro turned to her and met her charge with his own, though at speeds much greater than hers. He was practically right in her face before she even knew it.

Renka, who had already been about to perform her Bake Renkangeki Suijin technique, didn't know what hit her as Souichiro slammed a palm into her gut and channeled some of his Ki into said palm. Renka went sailing back as the Ki quickly built up in Souichiro's palm and practically exploded, destroying a portion of her clothes as well, though she was still able to maintain her modesty a bit even despite the pain.

"That all you got?" Souichiro growled out as he began to slowly stand now, noting that everyone else had yet to make another move and for good reason too. Chiaki, though strong and with a number of powerful sumo techniques, simply wouldn't be able to do much as he wasn't as fast as his comrades not to mention that his techniques in particular require him to be very up close with his opponent. Hibiki couldn't exactly make a move either as his fighting style primarily relied on counters and the amount of damage Souichiro could do with his attacks in addition to his red feather abilities made it very hard for him to really do anything. And lastly, Kaname felt that her fighting wouldn't help much as her attacks and techniques, while still more than possible to do barehanded, wouldn't be as effective as an actual weapon, which Souichiro could very easily break.

"Just back down," Souichiro said a minute later and he genuinely hoped they would. Though he still felt as though he was in no danger at the moment from any of them, he was still worried. Worried about his red feather abilities to be more precise. Since the beginning of this fight, he had utilized a number of his abilities, but there had been at least about a dozen or so red feather abilities that he found himself unable to use at all, much like the Dragon's Roar. It unnerved him as to why this may be so. Souichiro made a note to himself that whenever he gets a chance to do so, he was going to try and contact Yami to try and figure out why this is happening.

"No thanks, Nagi." Souichiro snapped out of his thoughts, but did so a split second too late. Masataka, from wherever he had been just moments ago, had closed the distance between them both and now had his right fist placed right under Souichiro's chin.

Masataka proceeded to rear back said fist and do a fast turn, building up plenty of momentum while also building up an enormous amount of Ki, enough to make everyone there save for Aya and Maya gape a bit at how powerful Masataka was.

Souichiro was surprised too, but not by how much Ki Masataka had, but because he recognized the attack. "Shi-," he began, but didn't finish as Masataka executed his Ryukei Qigong Tashinkō technique.

He released his built up Ki as his fist made contact once again with Souichiro's chin, the Ki blasting straight through the chin and pretty much moving through his entire head, rocking his skull. The Ki shot out of Souichiro's head and blasted off into the sky. Everyone there couldn't help but watch large the beam of Ki, which was a dazzling light blue in color, travel upwards.

The beam of Ki died down a second later and when that happened, Souichiro actually went flying into the air, blood spewing out of his mouth from the powerful attack. He hit the ground a few seconds later ungracefully.

Everyone stared. "Holy shit," Ukita muttered as he adjusted his sunglasses, which were cracked at one point during the fight. "Did you guys see that?" he asked dumbly, as if he couldn't quite believe what he just saw.

"So strong…" Kaname muttered in awe. She would never have expected someone around her age to possess such power.

Everyone fell silent again even as Miu and Renka slowly got back up, looks of amazement on their faces as well.

However, the moment of silence came to an end. "Damn." Everyone save for the participating Juken Club members froze.

Souichiro was getting back up.

The true warrior rose back to his full height in short order, though he was rubbing away the blood that dripped down the side of his mouth. "That… stung a little," he said. He was honestly impressed, though he didn't show it. The attack just now had to be the only one he could recall ever actually being able to really hurt him. Granted, he took the attack straight to his head, but still it was impressive. Souichiro could honestly say that he hadn't expected Masataka to do anything like that.

He glanced at Masataka, who stood ready to continue fighting. "You've gotten stronger, senpai," he commented.

"Of course I did Nagi," Masataka responded as he prepared to fight once more at any sign of attack from Souichiro. "Did you really think I wouldn't try to get stronger after our last fight."

Souichiro actually chuckled, a small smile on his face as he finished wiping away the blood and cracked his neck. "Right."

Then he turned deadly serious again. Everyone was immediately more on edge than they were when he got up just now. Souichiro ignored them though and merely focused on Masataka. However, he did spare Maya a very brief glance. "Why the hell hasn't the captain done anything yet?" he wondered, having noted that she had yet to do anything during the fight. It was very odd to say the least.

He focused back on Masataka once more. "That said, senpai, I think it's about time we end this. Before we really do start causing a lot of collateral damage."

Masataka got ready to attack as Souichiro's words slowly sunk in. He was a bit surprised to see that the true warrior was right as there was little in the ways of collateral damage to the area save for a few busted walls, cracks and a few craters here and there and little more. He figured that they all really lucked out in this regard as this area in front of the Shinpaku Alliance building was remarkably large and spacious and out of the way for citizens. "Though that's probably going to change," he thought as he saw Souichiro prepare to make his own move as well.

"Here it comes," Maya thought as she too prepared to finally move. "My chance to try and stop this."

Souichiro knelt down just a bit, girding his legs, much to the surprise of everyone. Then a microsecond later, he leapt straight up. He put in a considerable amount of effort into the jump and it showed as he went flying straight up into the air at speeds that would leave bullets in shame. In addition to this, the true warrior also had used the ability he had unknowingly gotten from Shizuru all those months ago to further his leap and within a second he had reached the peak of his incredible jump at around eight hundred meters in the air.

Everyone gaped, even the Juken Club members and the rest in the building. "Fuuuu….." Bob began to mutter, more or less summing up everyone's reactions.

Even Miu and Renka, who were used to being around people such as Hayato, Kensei, and the rest of Ryozanpaku, all of whom are well known for doing wacky things, were surprised by this. In fact, the only person Miu could ever recall jumping that high was Apachai while Renka has simply never seen anything like this.

But they were snapped out of their thoughts when they all heard what sounded like stone being pierced. Immediately on guard, they all looked around briefly to see what was going on, but couldn't spot anything.

That is, except for Miu. "What is that?" she asked no one in particular. She pointed towards the stone wall far from the side of the Shinpaku Alliance headquarters. Everyone looked to see a hole in it.

Masataka, sensing something really bad, whirled around to see that on the wall opposite to this one, there was a hole just like that. "What is…?" he began, only to see something shimmering sticking out of the hole he was looking at.

"What?!" he muttered and noted that whatever it was that now on a quick second look appeared to be wrapping itself through the hole, it was connected to something higher up. He followed the shimmer for all of one second before he realized something. "Oh no," he muttered, his face going pale.

The shimmering stopped and faded, giving way to the thick hair strands of Souichiro. Somehow, he had extended them to ridiculous lengths and even managed to seemingly make them invisible.

The true warrior looked down at Masataka from his position high in the sky, having yet to fall back down, much to the shock of everyone as they now focused their attention back on him. He clenched and unclenched his fists a few times, the long hair strands moving now, lifting Souichiro a bit higher in the air.

It was at this point that Masataka started to panic. "Everyone, move! Move now!" he yelled for all to hear.

"W-What?!" a few of the Shinpaku Alliance members such as Ukita, Takeda, and Kisara stuttered out.

Masataka started to run. "Just move! He's going to-!" he began, but it was too late.

Souichiro, using his hair strands, launched himself back towards the ground, much like a sling shot would be used to launch a rock. Only he was traveling much, much faster than any launched rock, putting his earlier jumping speed to shame.

Everyone realized an instant too late what Masataka was trying to warn them of and they tried to move.

And that was when Souichiro struck the ground.

Elsewhere, Bunshichi perked up. "What was that?" he thought. The man was currently enjoying a nice little rest at a park, eying female joggers as he sat idly on a bench. But just now he felt something. Something off.

He stared off to his left, the very same direction that the Shinpaku Alliance headquarters was in. Though said building was too far away for him to even see, Bunshichi just got a very bad feeling in regards to that. "Something's up."

Bunshichi was feeling halfway tempted to get up and make his way over there if for no other reason than to potentially put himself at ease. But to this same token, he had a yet another feeling that if something bad was indeed happening, Maya or Masataka or another member of the Juken Club would have called him about it. And that hasn't happened just yet.

He slowly tore his gaze away from the direction of the Shinpaku Alliance headquarters. "Probably just my imagination," he muttered to himself as he slumped further onto the bench.

And that was when the ground rumbled a bit.

Caught totally off guard by this sudden event, Bunshichi nearly slid off the bench. "Whoa!" Sparing a glance around the area, he saw that he wasn't the only one caught by surprise by this, with a number of people having actually fallen due to the suddenness of this rumbling while others started to talk quickly and nervously, thinking it was some kind of freak earthquake. Bunshichi couldn't blame them for thinking that.

He glanced back in the direction of the Shinpaku Alliance headquarters. This so-called quake seems to have originated from that general direction. "Fuck," he muttered as he pulled out a cigarette. The bad feeling just came back, stronger than before.

Meanwhile, Nijima, Shinichiro, Kagesada, and the Valkyries and the other Shinpaku Alliance members were on the floor of the room, nearly unconscious. "Ugghhhh…." Nijima muttered as he lied a little dazed on the floor.

He coughed as he slowly but surely began to fully come around and stand up. At the same time, Shinichiro and Kagesada were doing the same. Everyone else still seemed to be out of it and wouldn't be getting up for at least a few more minutes.

Coughing, Nijima stumbled forward, but righted himself as quickly as he could. "What happened?" he croaked out.

"Nagi…." Shinichiro began to say as he shook his head, "he just slammed into the ground so suddenly…" he muttered.

"Yeah… I think…. we all saw that," Kagesada replied as he too stood and clutched his head.

Nijima looked around the room, taking note of some of the things in it having fallen over due to Souichiro's attack just now. He swore he could even see a few minute cracks in the walls and floor too. "And if the damage extends to _inside_ the building…" Nijima thought. His eyes widened.

"Then what about the others?!" he finished thinking and he began to move towards the window again to see what happened to everyone else. He had actually muttered out the last few words aloud, loud enough for Shinichiro and Kagesada to hear and they too moved to look.

The sight they saw made their jaws drop.

The area just right outside their building was, to put it mildly, completely devastated. It was as if a few missiles went off right outside. The ground was in complete and utter shambles, many pieces of it either blown away or into nothingness, leaving behind a crate large enough for two or possibly even three school buses to fit in if they were all squished together. The center of the crater seemed to be smoldering with dust too from all the debris from the crash.

This crater extended out to the streets as well, extending for dozens of meters in circumference. Which also in turn meant that the Shinpaku Alliance headquarters was also not spared by Souichiro's attack. However, the building was built to be very sturdy and so the damage wasn't that bad, with parts of the outer walls cracked badly or even completely destroyed. Chunks of said walls also littered the area.

Some other buildings in the area were also affected, with spider web cracks nearing said structures, but thankfully the buildings were far enough away to avoid suffering any truly serious damage.

"Holy shit…." Nijima muttered. He was never one to cuss, but this phrase was the only one he could think of that could best express his shock at the destruction. From next to him, Shinichiro and Kagesada were likewise in shock as they too looked over the area. Both took note that the walls separating the area from the sidewalk were gone, reduced to nothing more than rubble now. Shinichiro saw that a number of trees that usually littered the large area had broken in half from the sheer force of the crash.

All three teens' attention quickly snapped from the destruction to their right as they gazed out the window when the barely audible sound of groaning could be heard.

"There they are!" Shinichiro exclaimed.

Near the borderline of the crater, close to the building, all of the fighters could be seen, most of them seemingly unconscious. Seemingly.

Nijima gulped as did Kagesada. "You don't think any of them died, right?" the latter asked hesitantly.

If he expected an answer, he didn't get one as they all watched again as Masataka, who was apparently the first to regain consciousness began to stand up, knocking aside a piece of debris that had been lying on top of his chest. "Guh…"

Masataka stood up slowly, clutching his left shoulder as he felt a jolt of pain through it. "Damn, I think it's fractured or something," he thought.

The young Takayanagi glanced around him. "Guys?" he asked, wanting to make sure everyone made it through in one piece.

Spotting Renka some distance away to his left along with Miu and Chiaki, Masataka started to try and walk towards them – only to nearly collapse. He suppressed the cry of pain he felt coming up his throat as he began to realize just how much pain he was in from the crash.

"Argghhh…." Masataka stopped and tilted his head to the right in time to see Aya and Maya shift into sight, moving out from underneath a small pile of rubble.

"Aya! Captain!" he cried out, feeling his body shrug aside the pain for now as he quickly made his way over to them, confident that if the Natsume sisters survived despite their particularly close proximity to the crash site, then everyone else is still alive too.

As he approached, he noticed the two of them reach back under the large pile of rubble they just crawled of. When they appeared to grab hold of something and started to pull, Masataka immediately stopped next to Aya and looked to see what they were doing.

His eyes widened. "Bob!"

Indeed, the large teen was buried under the same pile of rubble and in rather bad shape, his body covered in wounds from the rubble as well as a decent amount of blood seeping out from the cuts of the more jagged pieces of rubble. Thankfully, the wounds weren't debilitating nor life-threatening and so Bob was still alive and well, albeit unconscious.

"Masataka, give us a hand. This rubble is pretty damn heavy," Maya said to him as she tried to push aside some of said objects.

"Right." Masataka began to help her knock away some of the rubble while Aya was now the one to try and pull Bob out.

He didn't get very far along in this new task.

Suddenly, a fist came careening right into his face before he could even react. Masataka soared back several meters before skidding across the ground, too beat up to try and right himself. "Arggh!"

"Masataka!" Maya cried out.

"Senpai!" Aya yelled out in shock and concern as well.

The two Natsume sisters felt something shoot past them and directly at Masataka, who was still on the ground. Their eyes widened. "Kid!" Maya yelled.

Masataka's head snapped up as he heard the little pet name that Maya had always addressed Souichiro by only for said teen to suddenly appear before him. Masataka, immediately sensing the danger he was in, tried to stand, but he wasn't fast enough and Souichiro – who had been standing in the middle of the crater the whole time covered by the smoke and dust – ended up wrapping a hand around Masataka's throat and lifted him off the ground.

Masataka felt his airway get cut off violently and unconsciously grabbed Souichiro's forearm with both hands in an attempt to try and get free. But he knew instinctively that it wasn't going to work and so he began to kick Souichiro in the face as viciously as possible.

However, the true warrior remained seemingly unaffected by the blows, his grip on Masataka's neck only tightening. "Sorry senpai, but it isn't going to work," he said.

He reared back his free hand, curled into a fist, and punched Masataka right in the chest. Bones could be heard breaking upon contact and blood began to pour out of Masataka's mouth just a bit. Souichiro delivered another punch before whirling around and tossing his senpai right into the wall of the Shinpaku Alliance headquarters.

Masataka just barely managed to cover his head before making contact, narrowly avoiding possibly getting a concussion as he crashed right through the wall. But now the threat of danger had made him alert, adrenaline pumping through his body and so he was able to roll and recover. He did this not a microsecond too soon as Souichiro's hair strands extended themselves and tried to slice the teen into pieces.

Masataka sidestepped one of the smaller hair strands and ducked under another before rolling once more, this time towards Souichiro. The remaining incoming hair strands homed in on the teen, but he was able to duck and weave through a few of them before leaping once again towards Souichiro.

As he neared the true warrior, he immediately jumped to his right as Souichiro began to breath fire like before. Souichiro, upon seeing Masataka dodge, turned his head as well, the steady stream of fire following Masataka, who began to run now.

"Shit!" Maya cursed from where she stood. She turned around to kick aside a few more large pieces of rubble before addressing Aya. "Get him out of there as fast as you can!" she exclaimed as she gestured to Bob.

Aya grunted as she tugged on Bob's arms again, the large teen being slowly but surely pulled out from his current entrapment. "But what about yo-?" she began only to suddenly stop when she looked at her sister in time to see her being slowly enveloped by her own pulsing Ki.

Maya clenched her fists. "I've been building up my Ki this whole time," she said. Her eyes narrowed as she watched Souichiro rush Masataka, completely overwhelming him now with his much greater strength and speed. "And now I plan to finish this fight."

"But how? Why build up your Ki?" Aya still questioned as she glanced worriedly over to Masataka, who tried to fend off Souichiro's assault of punches as best as he could, but it was obvious to any watcher that it'd only be a matter of time before Masataka's defense would fall completely.

"What you've been telling us lately about the kid… it gave me a few ideas about what may be going on. And if I'm right…" Maya trailed off for a second. "then I think I can finally help him, even if only a little."

Aya looked at her in confusion. Then a few seconds later, she finally seemed to get it. "You don't mean…"

Maya nodded. "Now… now I just have to wait for a real opening." She would have jumped into the battle – if it could be called even that – right now, but Souichiro was practically a berserker now, what with his vicious attacks on Masataka. Her little plan would require her to get in between the two of them and with Souichiro's endless flurry of punches, that was nearly impossible. So until he let up on his assault a bit, she was stuck once again on the sidelines. She just hoped that Masataka would survive.

And speaking of the two, Masataka was indeed surviving, but he honestly didn't know how much longer he could keep this up. "Guh!" he cried out as he managed to parry one of Souichiro's punches, only to be hit in gut by another punch. He nearly puked from the pain.

"Uh, he hits even harder and faster than he did in our last fight!" Masataka thought as he tried to leap back, hoping to put some distance in between him and his opponent.

However, Souichiro seemed to anticipate the move for he leapt forward as well, his barrage of attacks not wavering. "Damn it!" Masataka yelled as this happened.

"Come on senpai!" Souichiro yelled out, the battle lust that usually seemed to come with being Susano-o beginning to really sink in. He became oblivious to the rest of the world and focused solely on the aforementioned senpai.

Were he not so focused on Masataka, he might have noticed Maya's Ki, but didn't. Masataka did though. "Whatever you have planned, captain, I hope you do it soon!" he thought as he stopped trying to parry any blows and instead try to duck and weave through the attacks with as little unwasted movements as possible to minimize the toll.

He was able to keep this up for around one whole minute, during which time, Souichiro had thrown nearly thousands of punches every second thanks to his elite master level physical abilities.

It was at this point that Masataka had reached his limit. His guard dropped completely, leaving himself at the mercy of Souichiro. He hardly had time to comment on this either aloud or silently as he found himself struck by more than a dozen punches all over his face and torso.

However, it was also at this point that Souichiro reached the limit of his patience. Much to the surprise of his two onlookers, Souichiro kicked Masataka right in the chin, a stark contrast to his usually punching fighting style. He did this with just enough force to launch Masataka above his head.

Upon this, Souichiro took one step forward so that he was now right under Masataka and proceeded to deliver a vicious right uppercut that made contact with Masataka's stomach. Sickening squelching sounds could be heard from the hit and the unlucky recipient went flying back from the hit, crying out in pain.

Souichiro turned around and began to chase after Masataka's flying and now prone form, deliberately moving at low expert level speeds in order to allow Masataka time to land on the cratered ground.

When that happened, Souichiro suddenly put on a burst of speed, rocketing forward to Masataka, who was amazingly still conscious despite all the pain. The true warrior lashed out with kick to his opponent's exposed side, knocking him just a few feet straight up. It was at this point that Souichiro himself came to a sudden stop as well, rearing back his right fist to punch Masataka, who was now level with his chest in the air.

It was at this point that Maya finally made her move.

The older Natsume sister lunged forward as fast as she could, moving at high expert class speeds. In less than a split second, she was able to run forward and get in between both Souichiro and Masataka.

But rather than attack Souichiro or grab Masataka and get out of there, Maya did something entirely different. With a slight battle cry, she finally let loose all of the Ki she had been building up the whole time, channeling it all straight into her Amaterasu gate, with the gate now appearing on her chest, glowing so brightly and intensely that it actually burned right through the front of her shirt, albeit not enough to fully compromise her modesty.

Souichiro's eyes widened as this all occurred for she had jumped in between the two right when he threw his punch. "Captain!" he yelled in shock, finally realizing that he had been practically ignoring her the whole time.

Almost instinctively, the true warrior tried to pull his punch or change its course to avoid hitting Maya. But he had put too much power into the punch for it to be stopped so easily. And so he ended up hitting Maya anyways.

His fist made contact with Maya's Amaterasu gate.

When that happened, said gate shined even brighter than it already was. But it wasn't just the change in lighting that occurred for suddenly a shockwave was generated when Souichiro's fist met Maya's chest, blowing away Masataka and nearly knocking Aya down too along with Bob.

Souichiro started to yell out in pain, his hair flailing about wildly as streams of dark Ki began to make their way from his very being and into the Amaterasu gate, turning into pure white as it happened.

The gate was beginning to purify Souichiro of his red feather abilities.

"Whoa," was the single word uttered by Nijima, Shinichiro, and Kagesada as they watched this, nearly enthralled by the process.

As for Souichiro, the true warrior tried to pull away from Maya, but found himself unable to really move. He felt as though he was being sucked into a black hole. Nonetheless, he struggled to remove his fist from Maya's chest.

Maya herself was in a bit of pain, her head reared back as a result. She could literally feel the powers Souichiro possessed flow from him and into her, being purified and effectively destroyed. For the first time in a long while, it felt as though they will finally succeed in saving Souichiro.

But this feeling didn't last very long. "Urgh," Maya mentally grunted, "damn it! There's just too much Ki to purify! And I won't be able to keep this up much longer!" she thought.

Despite this, Maya tried to see if she can absorb and purify the dreadful Ki as fast as she can through sheer willpower. And indeed, it seemed to work as more and more of Souichiro's Ki was being pulled from him and into the Amaterasu gate.

But this only lasted for just a few seconds longer. "Argghhh!" Maya cried out as she can longer keep the Amaterasu gate going.

Reaching her limit now, the gate closed immediately and without any warning. As a result of this sudden event, a sort of explosion went off right in between her and Souichiro due to the now severed connection between the two.

Both of them cried out as they went flying back several yards, landing roughly on the ruined ground. "C-Captain…" Masataka muttered from where he lied, barely conscious.

"S-Sis!" Aya cried out as well as she finally freed Bob from the rubble and now rushed over to Maya, who was currently breathing heavily and clutching her chest in pain.

"Guh," Souichiro muttered from where he was at. The true warrior held his head, disoriented. To say that he hadn't been expecting something like this to happen was putting it mildly – he had never thought something like this was even possible.

As he slowly stood up, he suppress a groan of pain as best as he could, but it still slipped out just a bit. "W-What the hell…." He muttered, unable to really think of anything else to say. His mind felt as though it were broken into pieces and were now coming back together. It was as if whatever exactly happened just now had affect whatever connection he and Sohaku had; he could barely feel the man's influence. Though this would be cause for joy at any other time, Souichiro couldn't help but feel eerily empty. It was as if Sohaku had just abandoned him suddenly rather than be destroyed like he had been hoping for so long now.

"What…. does… this mean…?" he thought as he shook his head, his eyes closed as he did so.

It wasn't until he opened his eyes that he finally noticed the full extent of what had just been done to him. "What. The. Fuck?" he said slowly with wide eyes.

Looking at his hands, he noticed that his skin was no longer blacker than coal. Instead, it was back to the light complexion that he once had before his transformation into Susano-o. His hair was still long and silvery, but not as much as before, looking closer to white like Sohaku's hair was.

Souichiro's breath quickened as it finally began to sink in that he was no longer Susano-o, at least not completely anymore. He quickly looked around the ground until he spotted a piece of glass from a window that had shattered when he crashed earlier.

Picking it up in a split second, he held it tightly as he gazed at his own reflection. He gasped lightly as he saw that while his right eye was still its same eerie self from when he was the true warrior, his left eye was back to its normal self, his sclera being white just like any other human's while his brown iris could been seen rather than the creepy gold it had been before.

Souichiro dropped the piece of glass and took a few shaky steps back. He felt as though he was hyperventilating. Though he should feel happy about something like this, he felt far from it. Instead, the feeling that something was wrong – which he had been feeling for quite some time now actually – was back and it felt stronger than ever. If anything, the conclusion to this battle only seemed to enforce this point to him.

Ignoring everything else around him, Souichiro whirled around and made a run for it as fast as he can. He noted that while he was still moving much faster than guys like Masataka or Maya would be able to keep up with, he was still noticeably slower than he was just moments ago. This was no doubt a result of a considerable amount of the Ki he possessed as Susano-o having been taken and purified.

This just only made him feel more creeped out and he took off down the virtually deserted and ruined street as though the hounds of hell were after him.

Back at the battleground he just left, Masataka, Maya, and Aya could only stare at the spot that Souichiro had just been standing at, looking at the now shatter glass that he had just been holding.

"Damn it…" Maya muttered from where she lied.

"Souichiro-sama…" Aya said sadly.

While they may have succeeded partially at helping Souichiro, it was clear that they still had a long way to go. More than a little depressed, Aya began to help both her sister and Masataka up and start helping the others wake up. The battle with Souichiro was over. For now.

* * *

Wow. 18 pages! I knew that this chapter would turn out to be a long one, but I didn't account on it being 18 pages. Man, makes me wonder how long my chapters will be from now on.

Moving along… well, you know what guys? Not really much else to say aside from what I already said in the AN at the very top.

So with that little tidbit said, I do hope that you enjoyed reading and drop a review! I will try to have the next chapter done hopefully by late June or early July!Nire


	27. Chapter 27

Wow, I actually managed to get this done faster than expected! Must be because I'm on break until about mid-August or so. That and I am still looking for a job. Hope things go well for me!

As for this story, well, like I said in the last chapter, things will now begin to go their own way in a bit. All that's really left is the fight between Kenichi and Ethan (which even then will have a change or two to it) and once that's done, things will finally be underway to the finale! Granted, said finale is still a ways off from now, but just thought I should state that now.

Now onto the chapter!

Chapter 27

The One Shadow sighed as he leaned back in his seat. The past few days had been rather hectic for him. For what had been an unknown reason at the time, the process of Sohaku's restoration had been suddenly… interrupted he supposed the word was. The Ki flow was suddenly disturbed and weakened. More than half of the Ki was lost and with it, the One Shadow could almost literally feel a number of red feather abilities disappear.

As a result of this sudden flux, he had to start micromanaging the process to make sure that this was the only major change and that nothing else would be affected by whatever had occurred. This required much supervision and shifting of resources, hence his current frustration.

What's more is that just earlier today, his disciple, Kajima, had informed him that Souichiro had called him and told him of what had happened. "The true warrior is certainly proving to be a bit of a problem," the One Shadow muttered to himself as he recalled that Kajima also said that Souichiro wanted to meet up with either Kensei or him to try and figure out just what exactly was going on. Though Kajima had also stated that he managed to placate the true warrior, The One Shadow felt that Susano-o wasn't going to let this go easily.

"Should I have Kensei do away with him?" he pondered. Indeed, he honestly couldn't see much of a reason to keep the true warrior around any longer. While he certainly had his uses, all of the chaos that had been occurring ever since he and the other YOMI transferred to that school had left him seeming unreliable.

The One Shadow hummed. He'd have to think a bit more on this before making a decision. After all, it wouldn't do to do away with a potential asset; you may never know when it'll be helpful.

Elsewhere, more specifically, in Ryozanpaku, the atmosphere there was quite tense. "Miu! Wait, don't strain yourself!" Kenichi said to the girl as she tried to go about doing her usual routine of chores.

"I'm fine," she replied in an effort to placate the teen, but the grimace she let out as she continued to move about said otherwise.

"Miu, I think it would be best to do as Ken-chan says," Hayato said, his voice filled with concern for his granddaughter.

When both she and Renka came back to Ryozanpaku some time following the fight with Souichiro, Akisame and Kensei had taken to treating the two along with the others that had followed after them – namely Masataka and the rest of the Juken Club – practically immediately. Though Souichiro hadn't struck them many times, the few times he did had done serious damage, so much so that it sparked a great rage in the elder and it took all of the Ryozanpaku masters to keep him from going out and hunting Souichiro. Kenichi, who had been just as shocked and immediately worried as everyone else when Miu and the others came back, had tried to keep Hayato from going too.

Miu looked at her grandfather, wanting to protest, but Hayato placed a hand on her shoulder, giving her a firm yet gentle squeeze. "You have to rest, Miu. If you don't do that, you won't heal properly."

The girl looked down at the ground, seemingly contemplating her grandfather's words. Kenichi chose that moment to once again speak up. "It's alright, let us try to take care of things, Miu," he said with what he hoped was a reassuring smile.

"Kenichi…" Miu smiled back now. "Alright."

"Aw what about me?!" They all turned to see Renka standing in the doorway, looking at them – more specifically Kenichi – with puppy dog eyes.

"R-Renka!" Kenichi exclaimed as the girl, who was bandaged up, tried to make her way to him. He walked towards her and tried to lead her back where she just came from. "You shouldn't be up either!"

"Man, you guys sure are lively." Maya, who along with the Juken Club still stuck around Ryozanpaku, said as she entered the room now, a tired smile on her face. Out of everyone involved in the fight, she was possibly the only one hurt the least, having only really suffered some mild injuries from when Souichiro crashed into the ground as well as from severe exhaustion as a result of her trying to purify the true warrior.

"Maya-san! How do you feel?" Kenichi asked, his mind working as fast as it could as he had spent the past few days trying to catch up with everything. First there was his accepting of Ethan's challenge, which he still had to prepare for, and then there was this fight and now he was doing his part in trying to watch over everyone here, not to mention he still had to keep a watchful and concerned eye on the others such as Takeda, Ukita, and so on as they had also stopped by for a bit to get patched up.

Maya waved him off. "Still pretty tired, but way better than before at any rate," she answered.

"I see," Kenichi replied. "What about the others?"

At that Maya's expression turned serious and even a little grim. "Well Bob and Aya are fine more or less. They just have to try and not overstrain themselves for a days is all. But it's Masataka who had it the worst. While Koetsuji-san's treatment has really helped, he'll still be recovering for a while," she answered, sounding more than a little depressed at the condition of her friends. "Right now, Kagesada and Shinichiro are with them, making sure they stay in bed."

Kenichi sighed in relief. "That's good to hear."

From beside him, Renka nodded as did Miu. Hayato hummed in agreement too while stroking his beard as he usually did during such trying times. "Once again, I have to say that I'm impressed you managed to survive against such a foe, given how powerful he appears to be," the elder Furinji said.

Maya bowed bashfully. "Thanks," she said. "I just wish I knew what exactly happened there at the end. Even though I had reached my limit of purifying the Ki he had, it felt like I had also hit…. Some sort of wall I guess you could say," she muttered as she thought over the ending of that battle.

"Maybe he just tried to force in more Ki than you could handle?" Renka grumbled, pouting as Kenichi's attention was no longer on her.

Maya shook her head. "No, I would have definitely known if it was anything like that. And there really just isn't much for me or anyone else to go on, so your guess is as good as mine."

"Could you try something like that again?" Miu asked her.

The elder Natsume sister sighed. "Sadly, no. For one thing, it requires me to build up a lot of my Ki into the Amaterasu Gate, something that I can't really do while moving around. So if I'm to do that, I'm going to need others around me to help keep the kid back until I'm ready. And he'll be far more alert next time around too…. If there is a next time anyway."

Miu nodded almost solemnly and her expression was also mirrored by Kenichi. "I know that this guy has been through a lot in life…. But after seeing my friends hurt so badly, I honestly don't know how to feel right now…" he muttered.

Maya and the others there shot him an understanding look. "While he's not entirely excused for giving us all a good ass kicking, keep in mind that this whole thing essentially started with Sohaku managing to overcome our last attempt on him," she said to the Ryozanpaku disciple.

Now it was Kenichi's turn to sigh. "I guess…" He figured it would take some time for him to really figure out how to feel over this whole thing. As odd as it felt for him to admit, but ever since Souichiro and the Juken Club came into the picture, things have slowly started to become far more hectic in one way or another. On the other hand, it was thanks to them that he was feeling more determined in dealing with these kinds of situations than he most likely would have without their input, especially Masataka and Aya.

"Don't look so sad, Ken-chan," Hayato said, lightly patting the teen on the back. However, his definition of 'lightly patting' was considerably different from anyone else's definition and so he seemingly ignored Kenichi nearly stumbling a few feet forward, almost crashing into Maya, much to the sudden flustering of him, Miu, and Renka.

Hayato began to walk away, heading down the hall and elsewhere. "As long as you know that you genuinely want to help the Nagi boy, then you will overcome this internal conflict."

Kenichi, upon recovering from his near fall, looked a bit surprised by the elder's words. But the elder's words seemed to do the trick. "R-Right!" he replied. Then something just occurred to him. "Ah! But before I deal with that, I still have to train for my match with Ethan!" he yelled, now nervous as he realized that for all he knew, said match could end up occurring at any time. After all, Ethan had yet to contact him, but then again, given how busy he had been the past few days, he could have missed his call or something. And that would be very bad.

That made Hayato stop in his tracks. "Oh? You have a match?" he asked. A gleam appeared in his eyes, but Kenichi nor the others seemed to notice it.

Kenichi nodded. "Yeah." He looked ready to pull his hair out. "Gah, but I don't know anything about him, so how do I prepare?!"

"I can help with that." Everyone turned to Maya, but it wasn't her who spoke. The voice came from behind her.

Maya moved out of the way for all to see who spoke. "Shinichiro."

Shinichiro seemingly ignored Maya and addressed Kenichi. "I did a little more digging into YOMI, but as usual they have a pretty tough firewall to deal with," he began. So far, his words didn't exactly inspire much joy. "However, I was able to break through it just a bit."

Now everyone's ears perked up. "What did you find?" Kenichi asked, hoping for something useful.

Shinichiro rubbed his chin as he recalled what he read. "Well, to be honest, I couldn't get much on him, at least aside from what we already know of him. Zero mention of who his master is, but I did find out the name of the martial art he practices: Kalarippayattu," he said, slightly stumbling over the pronunciation of the name.

"Ho," the elder responded while stroking his beard.

"You know of it, elder?" Kenichi asked.

Hayato laughed. "I've even fought against it once!"

Miu seemed to know of it as well. "Grandfather did mention it to me once in the past." She looked at said man. "Wasn't it a martial art that is related to yoga?" she asked.

At that point, Akisame walked in as well. Everyone had to move around a bit as the room was starting to get pretty crowded. "That's right," the Jujitsu master began, having overheard the conversation, "it has been taught through Uzhichil and through Arthava Veda, and also teaches ways of using oil massage as treatment. It's a martial art that has both merits in fighting and medicine!"

He stroked his beard. "Others have said that the deity Dharma taught this in China, which led to the birth of Chinese martial arts, so it's close to being the original martial art," he finished explaining.

Kenichi and the others looked amazed. "O-Original martial art?!" he muttered in shock.

Akisame motioned for him to calm down. "Well, it has certainly been around since ancient times, but it isn't the original martial art. However, it has been said that both Buddha and Sidhattha Gottama were both masters of martial arts as well."

"Really?!" Kenichi was looking overwhelmed. "This is beginning to go over my head…" he muttered.

Renka, finally speaking up again, just shrugged. "Eh, just because it's old, doesn't mean it's great!" she said indignantly.

Miu looked worried though. "But that doesn't mean this won't be a tough fight." She looked at Kenichi, her eyes full of fear and concern. "If you get killed again, we won't be able to resuscitate you like we did against Kokin."

Maya scratched the back of her head while Shinichiro just hummed. "So then he'll need to come up with a counter strategy against this guy…" Maya muttered, Shinichiro nodding in agreement.

Hayato huffed. "Well, it can't be helped then." He looked at Kenichi. "It's been a while now, but…" He grinned. "You'll practice with me."

"Eeeeehhhh?! With the elder?!" Kenichi nearly screeched.

Maya and Shinichiro looked shocked. "T-Training with Furinji-san…" both muttered, stupefied. To train with the Invincible Superman himself was something that they never would have imagined, especially in the case of Kenichi. Though she wouldn't say it aloud, Maya was actually kind of jealous.

Hayato stroked his beard again. "I have a bad feeling about this upcoming fight and since I know the most about this martial art, for the time being Ken-chan…" His eyes began to glow ominously, getting a shiver of fear out of Kenichi. Miu looked nervous for him and Maya and Shinichiro couldn't quite suppress a shiver of their own.

"Prepare yourself," Hayato said with an equally terrifying grin.

Still shivering, Kenichi just had to ask to make sure of something. "Will we be training in the mountains again?"

Hayato let out a hearty laugh. "Ho ho ho, no. That is too old fashioned. We'll be training elsewhere this time around," he responded.

Kenichi, though determined to see this through to the end, felt an increasing sense of dread. "W-Where?"

The glint in the elder's eyes did far from calm him. "Oh, you'll see, Ken-chan. The world of martial arts is always evolving and so must the training methods," he replied cryptically. "Your upcoming opponent uses a martial art that essentially is based on a theory of the original so to speak. In which case, we will counter it with something more along the lines of a theory of development."

Maya and Shinichiro caught onto it. "So then… he's going to learn a new technique," the latter stated rather than ask.

At this, the Ryozanpaku disciple looked shocked and peered up at the elder for confirmation. When Hayato nodded, Kenichi's shaking grew worse, memories of his time learning the Seikuken running through his mind. While the training had been most beneficial, it was far from what he would consider relatively painless.

"Kenichi… please do your best," Miu thought in concern, her hands clasped together as though in prayer.

Renka was a bit more vocal with her concern. Or rather, her enthusiastic support. "Do your best, Kenichi!" she all but yelled, slapping him on the back hard with a smile on her face.

Kenichi, due to his shaking and not expecting it, nearly went stumbling forward from the hit. "R-Right."

Maya, rather than offer words of support, was a bit more intrigued by Miu's reaction to this surprising turn of events. She moved closer to the recovering girl. "Say… you like him, don't you?" she asked, almost teasingly.

The question nearly made Miu leap out of her skin. She whirled around to face Miu, trying not to flail her arms. "W-W-What?! N-No, n-not like that!" she whispered to the Natsume sister.

Maya raised an eyebrow, a smirk growing on her face as something popped into her mind to try and get rid of the rising tension in this serious situation. "Is that so…?" she whispered back. When Miu nodded back most quickly and energetically despite still recovering from her injuries, Maya had to fight back the ear splitting grin that threatened to appear. "Well, in that case…"

She proceeded to move right behind Kenichi. "Do your best, Kenichi-kun~" The elder Natsume sister said teasingly as she hugged the teen from behind.

Kenichi's heart nearly leapt out of his chest as he felt two large objects smash into his back even as Maya's arms wrapped around him. "M-M-Maya-san?!" he exclaimed.

The sudden hug was so sudden and occurred just right after he kept himself from stumbling that he really did stumble this time. Both he and Maya fell to the floor. Given his luck ever since entering the world of martial arts, Kenichi ended up in a rather interesting position, namely with him on his rear with Maya practically on top of him, her chest pressing against his.

However, Maya's hands were in different positions, with one being placed against Kenichi's chest, while the other was further down south. "My…." Maya gasped out, "you're a rather big guy after all, aren't you~"

Blood spurted out of Kenichi's nose as he nearly passed out. As for everyone else there, Shinichiro just stared with wide eyes at what just happened, while Akisame and Hayato simply chuckled at what was going on. Miu and Renka, however, were having different reactions entirely.

"W-What the-?! G-Get off him!" Renka yelled in near Dou-like rage, her Ki actually being visible, if only temporarily as she tried to blast Maya off Kenichi with her best glare.

Miu's reaction was somewhat similar. "G-Get off of him!" she exclaimed and – against her better judgment given her injuries – tried to move forward to grab Maya and pull her off the fainting Kenichi.

However, she didn't notice the gleam in Maya's eyes as she approached. If she had, the young Furinji would have rethought her move.

As she moved forward and tried to grab Maya, the Natsume sister quickly slid away from Kenichi and very subtly tripped Miu forward, forcing her to fall head first into his stomach. Dangerously close to the bottom of his stomach and near the same spot that Maya had groped to be more precise.

Upon Miu making contact with his body, Kenichi immediately recovered from his near blood-loss induced faint and blushed deeply. Miu herself sported an equally red face. "A-Are you alright, Miu….?" Kenichi asked shakily as the girl slowly began to get up, looking straight into her eyes as this happened.

"Y-Y-Yeah," Miu stuttered out as now Kenichi helped her back up.

From the sidelines, Maya snickered, Shinichiro shook his head though he had a grin on his face, Renka was almost as red faced as Kenichi and Miu due to what Maya had said, Akisame chuckled and so was Hayato, though a dark aura was beginning to surround the large man as he watched the close moment between Kenichi and Miu.

"Ken-chan," he said darkly, "do remember what I told you all that time ago."

Kenichi shivered, anime tears streaming down his face. "Whhhhyyyyyy?!" he thought. Sometimes, he felt that his masters truly, sincerely loved to give him the evil eye.

Elsewhere, Makoto suppressed the urge to sigh out of worry. The past few days have been rather tense as Souichiro hadn't shown up at school. She highly doubted that it was because of something stupid like him getting sick as she even further doubted he could even get sick. Another thing that sort of raised a few alarm bells in her head was that a few other people, such as Miu and a few of those Shinpaku guys have been absent too. And it didn't take a genius to see that there was some kind of connection between Souichiro and them; she had seen plenty of times that Nijima guy try to stalk Souichiro from afar or something similar.

"Gah, I should have asked him if he had a cell phone or something," the girl muttered to herself as she flopped over in her bed. She had been trying to study the past hour or so, but had a hard time getting down to business as she had been feeling this unexplained sense of…. What could she call it? Worry? Dread? Or something else?

"Just where are you, Souichiro-kun?" she asked aloud.

She lied there on her bed for several moments, endlessly thinking of what could possibly be happening. It never occurred to her that she was thinking so much on the true warrior, though her parents seemed to have noticed this over the past few days as they have asked her what was wrong and she had replied with something along the lines of "Just wondering about Souichiro-kun is all. I'm worried for him." Her parents weren't entirely sure how to feel about this.

Eventually, her thoughts were interrupted as knocking could be heard on her door. "Makoto, time for dinner," her mother said from the other side of it.

Makoto slowly got up from the bed. "Okay. Be right there," she replied as she stretched briefly. She briefly eyed her shinai, which was beside the bed. Looking at it made her feel a bit bad as she hadn't bothered to attend the club meeting for the kendo club yesterday, a testament to how uncharacteristically worried she was for Souichiro. She was half amazed the captain hadn't called her to scold her or something yet.

She made her way out of her room and into the dining room in short order after that, just as her mother began to set out the food dishes. She and her parents did the usual "Itadakimasu" right before beginning to chow down.

However, while she was usually a speedy yet refined eater, Makoto was eating much slower than usual and more often than not seemed to be playing with certain parts of her food unconsciously.

This didn't go unnoticed by her parents. "Makoto?"

Makoto looked up at her mother. "Hm?"

"Is something wrong. Are you not feeling well?" Her mother asked. She and Makoto's father naturally looked worried.

"A-Ah, I'm fine. It's just…. well…" Makoto began as she shifted uncertainly in her seat at the table.

But her parents caught on. "You mean… Nagi-san?" her mother inquired.

Makoto just nodded. "He hasn't been at school lately. And for some reason why, I just feel… I don't know… concerned."

Now it was her father who spoke up. "Makoto, while I understand that you are concerned for your…" he paused for a second as he tried to figure out whether to use the word 'friend' or 'crush.' He eventually decided to go with the former. "Friend, I am pretty sure that he would have at least contacted you if something came up, right?" he asked.

Makoto shifted once more. "I don't know. He can be pretty distant." She looked down at her plate. "And given what he's told me so far, I can't blame him for feeling that way a bit."

Both parents exchanged a look with one another. Given that the two teens had shared a taxi on the way home that one night, it was expected for them to have made conversation, but seeing as Makoto didn't tell them what said conversation was about, they could only guess. And from the looks of things so far, it seemed that this Nagi boy has had a bit of an unpleasant life at some points at any rate. However, since they've only met him the one time and he looked far from nice, the parents felt rather uncertain about Makoto being around him. But at the same time, they couldn't just tell their daughter to not be around him so much; it was clear that the two were friends, one of a few that Makoto had outside of Izumi and the Kendo club members.

"Makoto, we think-," her father began to say before the doorbell rang, cutting him off.

All three of them looked in the direction of the front door, which was straight down the hallway leading to the dining room. The doorbell rang again.

"I'll get it," Makoto eventually said as she excused herself from the table.

When she reached the door and opened it, it was very much to her surprise to see who it was. "S-Souichiro-kun?" she muttered in disbelief.

"Hey," he said. He was dressed in almost entirely black clothing, with pitch black jeans, a simple shirt that only marginally a lighter shade of black with a bunch of skulls across the front. But the reason why Makoto was so surprised by his appearance, aside from the obvious reason of him having not been at school lately, was because of the changes to his physical appearance.

"What happened to you?" she questioned as she stepped onto the porch. She was more than just a little startled by how his skin, which had once been as dark as coal, was now surprisingly light, the complexion on par with her own skin. There was also the matter of his eyes, the right one remaining the same as she knew it to be while the left was more… human, much to her shame, having thought of his eyes as otherwise prior to today. It was a light brown color while the sclera was white like a normal person's.

If her staring bothered Souichiro, he didn't show it. "I… I just wanted to stop by real quick. To see you," he said to her, ignoring her question.

Makoto took a step back, blushing lightly despite herself. Souichiro's earnest tone took her by surprise, just as much as his words did. "S-See me? W-Why?" she asked while simultaneously cursing herself for stuttering like an idiot, especially when Souichiro clearly didn't look too good. The true warrior didn't seem all there, as though he were in some kind of strange daze.

Souichiro's hands twitched uncomfortably, as though he was about to start hyperventilating. "Just… had to see you. Before I go."

Makoto's blush disappeared as soon as she heard that last sentence. She didn't hear her parents asking her who was at the door from inside, instead focusing all of her attention on Souichiro. It was at this point she noticed that the frightening and powerful aura he usually had seemed… diminished. "Go where?"

The true warrior shifted around a bit. "Just… away for a while. Things lately…." He sighed, unsure of hw to speak right now. He had spent the past few days getting into contact with Kajima, asking him almost desperately to try and get Kensei to meet with him, to try and talk about what was going on lately, but Kajima had given him no real good news, leaving him hanging and more than just a little angry and confused. And desperate. "Things for me have just been really damn odd. You can probably tell that much just by looking at me," he eventually said, gesturing to his eyes and lighter colored haired.

"I… I'm trying to see someone about this, but something else came up and now I have to deal with that pretty soon before I can probably see someone who can… try and help me with whatever has happened to me," Souichiro finished. He knew it sounded pretty damn vague, but he couldn't help it; he couldn't just tell Makoto about Yami and YOMI, no matter how much he wanted to get it off his chest.

Having spent the past days keeping to himself, he discovered that in addition to his Ki and his physical abilities being rather diminished compared to before, an almost terrifyingly large number of his red feather abilities have been purified. He still retained a larger number of abilities, some of which felt so bonded with him that he doubted May could ever come close to purifying them, but still the end result of his battle with them and the sudden void he seemed to feel within his mind had seriously set him on edge to put it mildly.

Makoto gaped like a fish at him, still ignoring her parents' increasingly worried calls for her. She looked down. "Is it… is it really that bad?"

Souichiro nodded. "Yeah."

"….Is it really so bad that you can't go to a hospital here?" Makoto asked hesitantly. However, she already knew the answer; she doubted any doctor in town had dealt with anything like what Souichiro had apparently gone through the past few days.

When Souichiro nodded in confirmation of this answer, she continued. "How…. How long will you be gone?" she eventually asked.

Souichiro's eyes didn't reach hers as she looked back at him. "I honestly don't know. More than a week at least."

It was at this point that Makoto's parents had decided to get up to see what was going on. When they approached the door and spotted Souichiro, they slowed their walking pace until they were standing behind Makoto protectively. "N-Nagi-san," Makoto's mother said.

Souichiro bowed a bit towards them. "Hi."

"What brings you here?" her father asked him. The look on his face and Makoto's mother made it clear that they were just as surprised as Makoto to see the change in his appearance.

"Just came by to talk real quick, is all," he replied.

Souichiro looked at Makoto, who was looking down. He couldn't think of anything else to say. He began to turn around to leave. "Well…" he began uncertainly, "I'll see you in about a week or two, I guess. Take care," he said to Makoto, his last words being directed to all of them. He walked off after that.

Several moments passed as they all watched him walk away before Makoto practically dragged herself back into the house. "What happened?" her mother asked her.

Makoto paused briefly in her steps. "Souichiro-kun… will be going away for a while. Try to sort out a few things that suddenly came up," she replied.

Her parents stared at her. "Are you alright?" her father asked dumbly, he and his wife unable to think of anything else to say.

Makoto shook her head. "No. no, I'm not."

Later that day and elsewhere, Ethan Stanley wiped away the small trickle of blood that had been flowing out a shallow cut on his right cheek. He felt that he was getting sloppy and that wasn't good.

Ever since his sister was taken into custody by Yami, he had resolved to do anything to ensure her continued safety. Realizing this, Yami had taken to putting him through many missions, practically nonstop. He was thankful that Chikage's master, Mikumo, had seen to it that until he completed these missions he was sent on, that his sister would remain free from any form of harm.

As for the missions themselves, they were of no bother to him. They helped to further hone his skills and help him reach his peak for when his match with Shirahama was to be. Still, he had to be careful; the more he completed, the more dangerous the next mission appeared to be, hence his current worry of getting sloppy. Nonetheless, he was determined to make it through all this and fight the Ryozanpaku disciple.

He looked up at the night sky, humming almost thoughtfully as he did so.

He wouldn't make the same mistake that seemingly all of Shirahama's previous opponents have made, underestimating him and holding back. He will use his full power right from the start and crush the Ryozanpaku disciple. And though his opponent will definitely fight back tenaciously, he will win.

No matter what it takes.

* * *

As you can tell, this chapter was more of one big transition rather than an actual chapter. An interlude I guess. That said, I will now be doing a bit of a timeskip next chapter, namely skipping over the training Kenichi did to learn the Korui Nuki technique and just getting straight to the fight between him and Ethan. So in other words: KENICHI VS. ETHAN NEXT CHAPTER! Or at least the start of it, ha ha ha. As well as the start of other things.

As for the little scene Maya started in Ryozanpaku, that was inspired by a chat I had some time ago with a cool guy by the username of **Ryujin65**. So to you Ryujin65, I thank you for that awesome idea! I got a good chuckle or two out of writing it.

Also to **Killmenowman:** Thank you for your review! Ah yes, HSDK and TT are also two of my favorite martial arts manga/anime. I hope you continue to enjoy my fic as I keep updating.

And lastly, updating. My next semester doesn't start until mid to late August and I don't register for my classes until late July, so I will have plenty of time to work on my side project before working on the next chapter for this. However, I have a job interview coming up and depending on how that goes (i.e. whether or not I get the job) may have an impact on how much/often I write. Just letting you all know in advance.

With all that out of the way, thanks for reading! Until next time!


	28. Chapter 28

As is the usual now, I have been able to get around to this chapter faster than anticipated! Like I said last time, this chapter now marks the fight between Kenichi and Ethan and will also sort of begin the divergence so to speak that I mentioned. I will still follow canon events from time to time, but they will not be the main focus as much as changes WILL be coming quite soon.

And on a totally random note, Man of Steel! Regardless of whether or not you liked how the story/plot of the movie was (personally, I thought it was done pretty well), I think all who watch it can agree that the action was awesome! Also saw WWZ. To all zombie fans out there, I would actually recommend it to you. Just be warned that if you do watch it, be prepared to hate some people in the movie; they're going to do some pretty damn stupid things.

Now that said, enjoy!

Chapter 28

The day for the battle had finally come. Kenichi had just been contacted by Ethan himself yesterday – "Just how do they know my cell number?!" he questioned furiously – and was given a slip of paper with the place and time on it.

And it was here that Kenichi arrived right now, courtesy of Sakaki driving him and Miu. "Geez, I didn't think Yami would have a base this far in Japanese self-defense force territory. Just how far have they infiltrated this country?" he questioned as a large and seemingly run down building came into view through the plethora of trees. Pulling out the paper slip that Kenichi had been handed yesterday, the Karate master checked it. "Looks like this is the place. Masters don't get involved with their disciples' fights, so you two go alone from here!" he said.

"Right!" Miu said as she took off her helmet, having being sitting on the back of Sakaki's motorcycle while Kenichi had been traveling the extra seat Sakaki had for times like this.

Kenichi took off his helmet now and stood. "Thank you, Sakaki-shishou," he said, almost eerily calm.

He and Miu promptly flung their helmets to Sakaki, who caught them, and the two disciples took off, Miu lagging just a bit behind Kenichi. Though several days have past since the fight with Souichiro, she was still feeling a bit on the sore side.

She grimaced as she and Kenichi ran inside the building. "Still kind of hurting from that fight. Hopefully it'll just be a few more days before I'm really back to full strength," she thought. She then eyed the décor of the building as they walked. "This building seems abandoned and has been for some time judging by the state of things. And here we hoped to find an actual base." She felt a little gloomy about that.

She and Kenichi traveled in silence, save for the sound of their footsteps before minutes later, they finally arrived to the main room. There, they saw Kenichi's opponent, Ethan, standing tall and proud despite the small cuts and bruises he had. Ethan didn't seem the least bit bothered by this though, shown through the strong Ki he radiated as he stared at Kenichi. The large teen had also dressed appropriately for the battle, wearing a Kalaripayattu loincloth and nothing else. Though Kenichi was a bit inexperienced in these sorts of things, he assumed it was to increase his mobility.

To Ethan's immediate left, leaning up against the wall was Souichiro, having arrived to serve as a witness for their battle. Kenichi gave him a look over, surprised by Souichiro's change in appearance compared to what he had looked like before. Though Miu, Maya, and the others had informed him of the change, it was still a bit surprising to see. The Ki he gave off as well was yet another surprise for Kenichi as well, feeling much less malevolent than the other times he had encountered the true warrior. However, given that the Ki was still far greater than disciple he knew and that Souichiro was dressed in casual yet mobile clothes, namely a simple grey shirt with a band logo on it and black cargo pants, the Ryozanpaku disciple made a mental note to himself to not let his guard down around him.

However, there was someone who was there that neither he nor Miu had expected. "Chikage-san?" Kenichi asked.

Indeed, the young Kushinada girl was standing by Souichiro, dressed in formal jujitsu wear. "I was asked to serve as a witness as well, just in case," she replied.

"I see," Kenichi responded back, accepting the answer without much thought on it. His mina focus was on Ethan, who had taken a few steps towards him. Kenichi proceeded to do the same. Miu took several steps, moving to the other side of the room to watch, her face showing concern yet confidence for the boy.

From where she stood, Chikage raised her hand towards the two fighters. "Are the fighters ready?" she asked.

"Yes," Ethan said.

"Yeah," Kenichi replied.

As Chikage looked them over, Souichiro did as well. "From what I hear… Shirahama is a slow starter. It takes time for him to really start fighting. Ethan on the other hand…" he began to think, his eyes trailing from Kenichi to Ethan, "is the kind of guy to go all out from the start. And with all the shit I heard he's been doing lately, he's already more than warmed up, so this fight should be a fast one," he thought, unusually focused on this. He needed to get his mind off of the more recent developments.

The true warrior narrowed his eyes though. "But…" He looked back at Kenichi, "what is up with the small cuts and bruises on him?" he thought.

Chikage raised her hand straight up. "Begin!" she yelled.

The instant she spoke, Ethan rushed straight at Kenichi, closing the distance faster than an eye could blink. He launched a sort of palm thrust with his left arm right at Kenichi's face.

But much to the shock of both Souichiro and Chikage, Kenichi raised his left hand, deflecting the attack while also raising his left knee. "Geimon Teipii!" he yelled.

Ethan's right hand, which was already raised to begin with, moved forward and caught the incoming knee. When he did, he felt his right hand nearly get shoved aside from the force. "What?!" he thought as he put more strength into keeping Kenichi's knee back.

Souichiro and Chikage looked on in shock as this had been completely and utterly unexpected. But Kenichi surprised them once more as he proceeded to unleash a barrage of attacks on Ethan, calling out the names of the techniques as he performed them. "Tei Kua Tron! Toi Toi! Seiken! Metote!"

Ethan was forced immediately onto the defensive, blocking and parrying every attack that came his way. Kenichi was utterly relentless in his assault, a far cry from his usual self, who tended to never really take such a strong and overwhelming offensive.

"Unbelievable. Pollux appears to be the slow one to start while band-aid is already in such a rage for a battle," Chikage thought in shock.

"What. The. Fuck?" Souichiro thought dumbly. "He's way different from what I've heard!"

Both YOMI members turn to Miu, who suddenly looked sheepish. "Just what did you guys do to him?" Souichiro questioned, unbothered by the sight of Miu, who he had been all but smacking around in the battle days ago.

"Er, well from last night until just some time ago, Kenichi had to face grandpa's lifte-threatening sparring," Miu muttered.

Souichiro's eyebrow twitched in shock while Chikage just shook her head in disbelief. "S-So that's how he was heated up on arrival. How reckless…" she muttered, just loud enough for Miu to hear and making the buxom blonde feel even more embarrassed.

All three turned their attention back to the fighting duo just in time to see Ethan suddenly clench, making a fist with the knuckle of his middle finger sticking out a bit. Fending off just a few more attacks from Kenichi, the large YOMI member finally made his move, aiming for Kenichi's chest.

Kenichi sensed the danger of this and immediately slammed both hands on Ethan's left bicep, stopping his arm and fist from advancing any further. "The 'killer' fist, was it? I was told that one strike to a critical point would kill an enemy…" he said.

"You've learned from a good master," Etha complimented, "but I've already hit a critical point."

Kenichi suddenly cried out in pain, looking down to see that Ethan had grabbed a hold of his left arm, tightly jamming his thumb into it too.

Ethan let go of Kenichi, causing said disciple to try and move back, but Ethan followed up his attack with a fast and powerful haymaker. It made slight contact with Kenichi's left arm, forcing the Ryozanpaku disciple back even further.

Shaking his hand a bit, Kenichi was a bit upset. "Damn, I wasted the elder's warning! But this isn't a manga, so just poking at a weak spot shouldn't…" he thought only to trail off when he realized that the damage was far more severe than he thought. "What?!"

Ethan stood proud and tall, raising his fists, with his index fingers and middle fingers clenched against one another. It was now time for him to start his own attack. And he did.

He charged forward and Kenichi and began to ruthlessly press him, throwing out attack after attack at him. Kenichi hardly had the chance to even yelp at the sudden reversal of things and found himself being forced back as he tried to dodge or parry Ethan's calm yet vicious assault.

"What? Kenichi's movements are now a little slower…" Miu thought in worry.

"It seems like perhaps band-aid's offensive earlier was just a one time thing," Chikage thought as now it seemed like the battle was going as she had first expected it would.

"Huh, this Shirahama guy isn't doing so well now. He really beat some members of YOMI?" Souichiro thought.

Ethan went for another devastating punch, only for his foe to jump into the air to avoid it. As he landed, he tried to move his left arm, but found out that e barely could. "It's going numb!" Kenichi thought in horror. Using only one arm now in addition to his legs was going to make this battle a lot harder.

"Boar stance!" Ethan suddenly cried out, once again getting Kenichi's attention as he charged forward.

He launched a fierce straight with his good arm at Ethan, only for the large teen to stop just a few inches away from his fist and lash out just a bit with his right leg. Kenichi opened up his legs to avoid the attack and moved back, only for the large teenage to rush forward again, going for a grapple hold of some kind on his legs.

"Urgh." Kenichi rolled backwards and leapt, quickly freeing himself from the attempted grapple, but the ever calm-looking Ethan refused to let him really get away.

Clasping both hands together, Ethan thrusted them forward. "Snake stance."

Kenichi dodged to his left, but the attack clipped his right shoulder just a bit. "What fierce attacks. If this keeps up, I'll have to try and form a seikuken with just one arm," Kenichi thought.

Stomping hard on the ground, Kenichi began to wave his right arm around, beginning to form said Seikuken. Breathing steadily and looking into Ethan's eyes. He nearly broke the seikuken in surprise. "This isn't killing intent I'm feeling…. It's more like impatience. Or even fear?!" Then it hit him. "His sister!"

Launching a palm attack that finally managed to force Ethan back a bit, Kenichi had to ask. "Now that I think of it, how is your sister? What happened to Castor?"

Ethan didn't answer. However, Chikage did. "Ever since her master was defeated and taken away, she's brought some unrest to Yami as she is now not attached to any master. However, it seems that the Demon Fist God is willing to accept her as a disciple."

Miu looked at her in surprise and confusion. "The Demon Fist God? Silcardo Jenazad? The master of Nagaraja of YOMI who attacked us in the blizzard? Grandpa said he had a difficult fight against him…" Given what happened with his last disciple, Miu actually couldn't help but feel a little worried for Rachel, provided she does end up becoming Silcardo's next disciple.

Chikage slowly looked at Miu. "If he doesn't like his disciples, he gets rid of them. He's that sort of man."

Souichiro folded his arms across his chest. "And given that girl's personality, I can't see her lasting too long if she does end up as his disciple," he muttered, looking away. He then looked at Kenichi. 'But from what I hear, if you get beaten here, then it shows Ethan's master's ability to raise disciples, and Rachel will probably fall under his master's protection," he explained, not bothering with using the codenames of Ethan and Rachel.

Kenichi looked back at Ethan, his eyes wide in surprise. "So that's why his emotions are so mixed up."

Ethan's right eyebrow twitched ever so slight, the only indication of the strong emotions he was feeling. This only lasted for a brief second before he began his assault once more, forcing Kenichi to utilize his Seikuken to dodge or parry the attacks.

When Kenichi dodged a punch to his temple, he was suddenly knocked back by a palm strike that followed it. "You were about to use your Ryusei Seikuken…" Ethan muttered.

Kenichi 'tched' at that as he held his left arm.

Ethan crouched down considerably, fists raised in front of him. "Your technique involves focusing on the entire body's breathing. The reason why most opponents fall for it is that they think you're merely focusing on their eyes. But in my case, this will not work; all I need to do is disrupt my breathing with yoga's breathing techniques."

Kenichi winced. "So this the martial arts that came from nothing, the original style. How terrifying!" he thought as he put his guard up once more.

Ethan charged straight at him. "Now please die!"

Kenichi stepped forward, meeting the large teen in the middle of the room. Ethan unleashed a torrent of blows, but one strike aimed for Kenichi's chest was not just avoided, but Kenichi even managed to direct it remarkably close to his left arm. When that happened, he clasped his right hand over Ethan's and latched onto his own left arm, effectively trapping the YOMI member's arm.

Then as if in victory, Kenichi smiled.

"He's smiling? Why?" Miu, Souichiro, and Chikage all thought.

The three immediately thought that perhaps the Ryozanpaku disciple had something planned for right then and now. However, this wasn't the case; he was smiling because, according to the elder, doing so can throw off the opponent if done with good timing. "Looks like the elder was right!" he thought happily as Ethan's attacks have stopped for now. He proceeded to move in on Ethan, still keeping his arm locked.

But this turned out to be a bad move as Ethan suddenly twisted and shoulder tossed Kenichi into the air. Said teen spun wildly around while airborne, in shock from what just happened even as he tried to right himself. That was when Ethan launched a kick for the first time in the fight.

Kenichi just barely sensed the attack coming and managed to outmaneuver Ethan just enough to avoid being knocked higher into the air. Quickly landing, Kenichi began to try and think through his options now, but Ethan kicked again, this time with his other leg, forcing the Ryozanpaku disciple to take a hasty step back.

But once again, Ethan wasn't done. His kick just now left his leg in the perfect position for an axe kick and that is exactly what he did, clipping Kenichi as he brought his leg back down at blurring speeds.

"…Looks like this is it for him," Chikage thought as she watched Kenichi cry out from pain.

Souichiro blinked once in surprise. "This guy… don't tell me he's worrying about Ethan's sister…" he muttered.

Chikage looked at him, her eyes slightly wide in surprise. "What do you mean?"

Miu was the one who answered her. "T-That's just how Kenichi is." She bit her thumb lightly in worry as she watched Kenichi reel back from Ethan. "Even when fighting people out to kill him, he always worries for others."

"Hmph, what an idiot," Chikage thought in response.

They watched as Kenichi mustered up the strength to parry an incoming kick and take a small leap back, but Ethan closed the distance in an eye blink. "Please die!" he said as his knee was about to connect with Kenichi.

Souichiro sighed. "He's done for…"

What happened next surprised the witnesses.

Rather than attempt to dodge or even block, however risky the latter would have been, Kenichi actually rushed forward instead, taking the knee directly in his stomach. Due to how close to Ethan he was when the knee connected, the attack lost a lot of its power, allowing Kenichi ample time to punch Ethan right in the jaw.

Kenichi smiled. "No matter what sort of situation you're in…" he coughed. "T-T that doesn't mean I'm going to die… for… you!"

Thinking of what his masters would say, the Ryozanpaku disciple backed away from Ethan before quickly moving forward and elbowing the large YOMI right in the chest. Ethan staggered, but was able to use this to his advantage by ducking under the backhand that Kenichi unleashed. Lastly, Kenichi went for a straight, but Ethan proved to be surprisingly flexible despite his muscular build, sticking to the ground to avoid the attacks to his upper body.

Kenichi coughed again, the few hits he took taking their toll on him. "F-Flexible… that's really impressive!" he complimented his opponent. "You must have put forward a lot of effort into your martial art with a straightforward heart… if we had met in a different way, I'm sure we could have been friends."

Miu, Souichiro, and Chikage watched on silently, especially after what the teen just said.

"But right now, I'm going to have to knock you down!" Kenichi yelled.

"I'll see you again in the next world, Shirahama!" Ethan retorted as he charged at Kenichi. Kenichi did the same.

Both got all but right up in each other's faces at that point. Kenichi went for a palm strike, but Ethan nimbly dodged before responding in kind with a powerful right punch. Kenichi in turn managed to guard against it albeit barely.

Though guarded, Kenichi still stumbled back from the hit. Then, much to everyone's shock, he suddenly let both of his arms go limp.

"What is he doing?" the three witnesses all though at once.

Ethan was just as perplexed, but he had no intention of letting this opportunity go to waste. He rushed forward, ready to slam an elbow right into Kenichi.

Back outside, Sakaki could be seen, staring at the building quietly. He suddenly smirked. "Looks like it's finally about to happen, huh." He felt happy. Though he couldn't see anything, he could still feel the Ki of those in the building and was able to use that to get a general feel of what was going on. And it looked like the training with Hayato was finally about to pay off for Kenichi, if his hunch was right.

The sound of a motorcycle engine could then be heard from behind Sakaki before it stopped. Sakaki didn't turn around to address who showed up. "Finally made it," he said with a chuckle.

"Eh, wasn't in that much of a rush. As long as your disciple is still fighting, the kid shouldn't be making much of a move." The voice was obviously male. Said person pulled out a cigarette and lit it.

Blowing out a small puff of smoke, he walked up next to Sakaki. "You think this will turn out well?"

Sakaki now glanced at him. "What, wimping out?" he asked with a smirk.

His new buddy rolled his eyes. "Nah. Just that knocking him out isn't gonna be easy. And while whatever is going on is causing him some serious problems, he probably still has a shit ton of red feather abilities to rely on, so a fight with him is going to be pretty fucking tough. If I'm not careful, I could die and so could those kids in there if there is that much collateral damage as a result."

At this Sakaki's smirk dropped. The two fell silent for a bit. "You sure you don't want some help."

A shake of the head. "Don't sweat it. Maya did ask me to do this personally. As much of a pain in the ass it might be, I'll do it." He began to start powerwalking to the building. "See you in a bit," he said before taking another puff of his cigarette.

Sakaki watched him walk away. He remained silent for just a few seconds longer before a loud sound coming from inside the building hit his ears. "Looks like it's pretty much over," he muttered.

Back with the battle, it was indeed reaching its conclusion, with Miu, Souichiro, and Chikage looking on in shock at what had just occurred.

In retaliation against the elbow attack, Kenichi had attacked with his knee while slamming his other leg into the ground to give himself a bit of a boost forward to do it. But when that occurred, it looked like Ethan managed to use said elbow to block, only for Kenichi to have suddenly twisted and, using the same leg, switch from a knee attack to a powerful upwards kick that had struck the large YOMI right in his midsection. The attack had been so sudden and powerful that Kenichi's planted foot had left a small crater.

That was what had occurred just barely a moment ago.

Now Kenichi could only stare at Ethan, who was coughing up blood from his new spot on the ground whereas Kenichi himself looked pretty winded as well.

The three witnesses could only stare numbly at what had just occurred, having been completely taken by surprise by Kenichi's new technique: the Korui Nuki.

"Damn…" Souichiro had to admit that if someone stronger than Kenichi, such as Masataka or Maya, had done something like that, he doubted even he'd have been to remain standing immediately afterwards. The sheer level of power that had been put into the technique was impressive to say the least.

"P-Powerful," Miu thought.

Chikage just watched in silence, though her usually unflappable manner had slipped, having no real words on what to say about this.

Then, much to everyone's surprise save for Kenichi, Ethan slowly but surely managed to get back up. But the large teen was shaking like a leaf, blood still pouring out of his mouth as whatever strength he had managed to muster began to quickly slip away.

Said teen began to reach out to grab Kenichi, but the shaking grew worse as did his vision. Ethan's eyes began to close. "Sister… I'm sorry…" he muttered before falling back.

All stared at this in silence for several seconds. "Amazing… though it was dangerous, he actually managed to beat Pollux…" Chikage thought.

"This guy… he's come a long way from when I nearly killed him…" Souichiro thought, looking at Kenichi as though actually looking at him for the first time ever.

From next to him, Chikage huffed. "Alright then. That's enough." She began to raise her hand. "As the overseer to this fight, I announce the victor to be Ryozanpak-," she began.

"Stop!" Kenichi yelled unexpectedly.

All eyes were on him now. "This isn't over yet." Then to the shock of both Souichiro and Chikage, Kenichi proceeded to move the unconscious Ethan. "Now we have to go rescue his sister!" he declared.

At the nearly stupefied expressions of Souichiro and Chikage, the Ryozanpaku disciple grinned. "If we can do that, then it'll be a victory for the Katsujinken." Now he looked at Miu. "Right, Miu?"

Miu smiled. "As always, he cares for those he fights," she thought in slight awe and even adoration. "Yeah!" she said.

"You two… you two are nuts," Souichiro muttered, "at least I think you are."

"Indeed." Chikage huffed. "If you really are that determined to get Castor, then that means you'd have to fight a battle at one of Yami's bases."

At this, Kenichi slowly stood up as Miu knelt down beside Ethan to administer some first-aid. "Ah! After he wakes up, we'll have to do whatever we can to get the location out of him!"

"Incomprehensible! You may be stronger than expected, but Pollux will never reveal the location of his sister," Chikage said.

"But he's fought this hard for her sake. Anyway, I think he's the most honest," Kenichi responded.

"Nonetheless, he won't speak. That's just how YOMI is," Chikage said.

"…. Well, it's not like we were told not to say anything about it." Everyone stopped what they were doing to look at Souichiro.

Upon seeing that he was the center of attention, the true warrior shifted a bit from where he was standing. "What?" he asked, a bit too defensively.

"A-Ah nothing. Just surprised that you'd be willing to help," Kenichi said.

"Well, it's not like anyone from Yami tells me anything anymore," the true warrior grumbled.

Kenichi and Miu flinched from how disgruntled he sounded, his Ki flaring up a bit. Clearly, whatever it was he has had to deal with lately has been putting him on serious edge.

Then Souichiro looked at Kenichi's left arm. "It's still not moving?" he eventually asked.

Kenichi blinked and then looked down at said limb. Grunting as he tried to command it to move, he was a bit dismayed to see that it wasn't doing so. "No. Looks like it won't be moving for a while," he muttered a bit sadly. It sure would be nice to have the ability to move around again, even if only a little bit.

Souichiro just stared at his arm for a moment before sighing. "…. If you want, I can maybe heal it."

Kenichi looked at him in shock as did Miu and Chikage. "Really?"

The true warrior did his best not to flinch under their shocked gazes. It made him feel a bit uncomfortable in addition to still having to wait around for Yami to finally approve of him finally meeting with them or not. During the past few days, Kajima had gotten in contact with him saying that within a week or so, the One Shadow or Kensei may finally be able to contact him. He sure hoped he could meet with them soon; his askance to help Kenichi just now made him belatedly realize that maybe using a red feather ability might not such a good thing to do given his current state.

But now, he couldn't help but feel like a douche if he were to suddenly change his mind. "Sometimes, morals suck," he thought.

He nodded. "Just use your right hand to stick out the left arm to me," the true warrior said as he raised his own right arm.

Just as Kenichi was about to do so, Souichiro suddenly felt his own little danger sense go off. Eyes widening, he couldn't possibly even think of an immediate threat to him. If he had, perhaps he would have been able to avoid the fist that suddenly slammed right into the back of his neck.

"Urgh!" He slammed face first into the ground, hard enough to shake the entire run down building.

"Whoa!" Kenichi yelled, jumping back instinctively while Miu nearly stumbled from her position by Ethan, though she did recover quickly enough to get into a combative position. Even the young Chikage seemed surprised and ready to fight.

A bunch of dust and debris was the result of the sudden and clearly powerful attack, preventing any of the three from seeing who it was.

"W-Who is there?" Kenichi asked, looking around cautiously.

A puff could be heard. "Eh, don't sweat it too much. After all, I probably just saved you."

Kenichi, Miu, and Chikage blinked in surprise as the dust cloud began to give way.

From his spot on the ground, Souichiro slowly turned his head to look at who attacked. His eyes narrowed in annoyance. "Fuck, it's you…"

"Yo," Bunshichi said, taking another puff of his cigarette. And then he did something that, were the members of the Juken Club there, would have been deemed very surprising: he flicked the cigarette away. Given how much he liked to smoke, it would have made the many people that knew him back in Todo do double takes to make sure they hadn't hallucinated it. "Looks like you got a hell of a lot tougher back from when I first knew you, right kid?"

Souichiro stood up, looking over Bunshichi, dressed in simple black jeans and a white shirt with a bunch of logos on it. He growled. "Don't tell me you're here…."

"Yep, to get you kid." Then Bunshichi slugged him in the face.

Souichiro went flying back, past Kenichi, Miu, and Chikage, who all had to duck or just flat out move out of the way to avoid getting hit. He hit the wall and nearly went through it too. "Damn…" he muttered as he fell to the floor only to get back up.

He felt something drip down the side of his mouth. Blinking ,he touched the wet spot and looked at his fingers to see that it was blood. He narrowed his eyes. It looked like Bunshichi really wasn't messing around. "You're actually serious about this…"

"You bet, kid." Bunshichi cracked his knuckles. "You guys might want to get out of here," he said to Kenichi, Miu, and Chikage.

"Eh, but why do you have to fight?" Miu questioned. As she asked, Kenichi moved up to Ethan and gently picked the large teen up.

Bunshichi sighed. "Cause of Maya. She wanted me to try and grab the kid once she found out that this is where he was gonna be. The past few days, she figured that she just might as well try and see if the rest of the red feathers in him could be purified."

"That sounds like the captain alright," Souichiro muttered, "she just doesn't give up even when it looks and sounds like she does…"

"Mhm," Bunshichi agreed. He looked grim. "And while this is pretty out of character for me, I don't plan to just let you waltz on out of here."

Souichiro glared at him, his Ki rising. It was beginning to approach the levels he once had. The other three in the room felt that now was a good time to leave, especially Kenichi, who feared that Ethan, who was already hurt, would get hurt worse by accident.

"Guh…!" Kenichi didn't know what to think anymore on this. But nonetheless, he had all but vowed to rescue Rachel and so that is what he'll have to do, even if he has to get his masters involved. "L-Let's go!"

Miu spared a glance to Bunshichi and Souichiro. "…Right." She left with Kenichi and Ethan who was slung over Kenichi's right shoulder.

Chikage stayed behind though for one reason or another. "Do you really intend to fight?" she asked Souichiro.

"Yeah." His response was as succinct as it could get.

Chikage looked ready to say something, but then stopped short. She sighed. "Just do not take too long we do have orders after all," she said before taking her quick leave as well.

Souichiro didn't bother to reply before she left, his eyes not leaving Bunshichi. Then the instant he heard Chikage actually leave the building, he rushed forward as fast as he could and punched Bunshichi right in the chest.

The older man had seen it coming, but hadn't expected it to be so fast. "Fuck…" he thought as he went skidding back several yards.

Souichiro rushed after him yet again and punched him straight in the face before he could move. However, Bunshichi had managed to recover enough to cross counter him, scoring a powerful jab right in Souichiro's face as well.

The strength of the two simultaneous blows was enough to crater the ground beneath and shake the building to its foundation.

The battle between two of the strongest people for Todo was now on.

* * *

Well, okay, I have to say, I found myself kinda disappointed with how I wrote the last half of this chapter, but no matter how much I thought on it, nothing else came to mind. So my bad if the ending seemed kinda crappy.

On a brighter note, at last, I have finally managed to get to the one fight that I had always thought of! Seriously, ever since Souichiro first became the true warrior, I always wonder what would have happened if he and Bunshichi had fought. Expect much action in the next chapter whenever I get around to it!

And now speaking of that as well, I'm honestly amazed I am have gotten out the last chapter and this one out done earlier than expected. I may be able to say the same for the next chapter, but no guarantees on it. And once late August rolls around, I can definitely foresee chapters taking longer to get done; that's when my next semester is supposed to start after all.

So with all that said, I hope you enjoyed and drop a review!


	29. Chapter 29

Well, here is the next chapter. Yeah, sorry about the last chapter essentially being a retelling of the Kenichi/Ethan fight, but that said, this chapter for sure will begin the divergence from HSDK canon as the Bunshichi/Souichiro fight will be the main highlight of this chapter along with a few minor things that will be leading up to yet another confrontation, one that I am certain you will enjoy. Let's just say that the title of this fic doesn't necessarily apply to Souichiro and leave it at that…

Well, not much else to say other than that save for me getting a bunch of new ideas for new potential future fics.

So, let's get this started! Hope you enjoy!

Chapter 29

A ways away from the site of the current battle, a shadowy figure could be seen rapidly moving through the trees and such. Said figure was moving so fast that save for a few exceptions, not even high level disciples and low level expert class martial artists would be able to even see the person move.

Said person was the move was a man. He had been assigned a somewhat pressing assignment, which mainly consisted of making contact with the true warrior as quickly as possible. To deliver a message and a rather important one in fact, at least for Souichiro.

Well, that, and this young man was sort of eager to see the one he considered a friend again. "Ha ha ha, I wonder how Souichiro is holding up right now?" the young man remarked rather cheerily as he kept on moving.

With that question passing through his mind, he picked up his pace, the hopes that Souichiro was holding up well fueling him to move faster.

Back in the rundown building, Bunshichi swore under his breath as Souichiro took a deep breath before launching a fireball at him. The self-proclaimed Exorcist Tawara rolled out of the way to avoid it, his swearing getting a little worse as he felt the intense heat of the now passing fireball.

Souichiro used this time to propel himself forward and nail Bunshichi as he got back up with a powerful right hook. The hit knocked the cigarette right out of Bunshichi's mouth and caused a small crater to form in the ground underneath the Exorcist Tawara too.

Bunshichi stumbled a bit, feeling dazed and Souichiro headbutted him hard upon noticing this. However, though it was a strong attack, it got Bunshichi to get his head back in the game and he kicked Souichiro right in the gut.

The true warrior proceeded to lose all of his air as he went skidding nearly ten meters back. Bunshichi had put a lot of strength into the attack. "That all you got, kid?" Souichiro glared at the older man's words and then with just a thought and some Ki, a bunch of roots suddenly formed from under the ground and shot out at the older man.

Bunshichi sidestep one particularly sharp looking root that had been aiming to stab him in the chest and then uppercutted the next incoming supernatural root, hitting it hard enough to rip it apart. A third root made its way towards him though as did a fourth, fifth, and sixth.

These last four roots seemed to hit their mark as Bunshichi had been unable to move out of the way. Souichiro allowed himself a small smirk at the sight of Bunshichi hunching over, but it quickly disappeared when he saw Bunshichi stand back and reveal to him that he had actually caught the roots with his fist.

With a grunt, he pulled the roots right out of the ground and then immediately let go as they now fell lifeless before the Exorcist Tawara's feet.

Cracking his knuckles briefly after that, Bunshichi then threw a punch straight forward from his spot. The punch was so strong that it generated enough air pressure to reach Souichiro despite the distance in between them.

The true warrior simply charged forward, arms raised to guard against the rather unusual attack. The air pressure struck him dead on, but while it was great enough to destroy chunks of the ground below him, Souichiro himself only slowed in his charge forward.

"Well then…" Bunshichi muttered. Then he shot forward as fast as a bullet to meet Souichiro head on. But as soon as the distance was closed between them and the older man threw a fierce hook, Souichiro just suddenly stopped, causing the attack to fall short of its mark by a few inches.

Growling a bit, Souichiro then took one step forward, stomping hard on Bunshichi's forward foot. Then that was when he summoned the lightning.

Charging up the Ki quickly to perform said ability, Souichiro immediately called forth the lightning from the sunny sky outside, said lightning shooting down from the heavens and piercing right through the building like it wasn't even there.

His opponent could only widen his eyes as it struck. Bunshichi yelled out in pain as he and Souichiro were struck. The true warrior, being who he is, was naturally unaffected by his own ability and took this chance to bring up his knee, right into Bunshichi's gut as the lightning came to an end.

In addition to now being more than a little fried, the older man doubled over from the hit and even went sailing into and through the ceiling, landing on the second floor of the large building.

Souichiro took a few steps forward before leaping up, slamming through the ceiling and crashing right into Bunshichi, who had just barely landed. He followed up the crash by quickly landing on the second floor's floor and grabbing Bunshichi tightly with his now sharp and lively hair strands.

The true warrior began to spin his foe around, the bladed hairs cutting into his flesh in the process. He did this for a few seconds before releasing Bunshichi, aiming upwards at an angle. Bunshichi went flying somewhere around Mach 10, easily breaking the sound barrier as he crashed through the ceiling of the second floor, going through a few walls of the third floor and partially through the fourth floor before he went through yet another wall on said floor and was greeted by sunlight. He had just been painfully flung outside.

"Ah, shit!" he thought through the pain as he now began to lose altitude after reaching the very high peak of his flight.

As he now began to descend, the Exorcist Tawara spotted Souichiro blowing through one of the walls and enter outside to greet him. He watched helplessly from his descending airborne position as Souichiro crouched down a bit before performing a massive jump.

The true warrior all but flew right at Bunshichi. "Eat this!" he yelled as he got close and reared back a fist.

But when he launched the punch a microsecond later, Souichiro could only slightly gape as Bunshichi, in a surprising show of agility, managed to expertly change his position in midair to block the punch. He had even managed to grab hold of Souichiro's fist and used this to actually pull him closer.

With a grunt, Bunshichi then let go of Souichiro's fist and firmly placed both of his feet on the true warrior's chest. It looked as if he were in a crouching position. It didn't stay this way for long as Bunshichi then kicked Souichiro as hard as he could.

With a cry of pain, the true warrior went plummeting to the ground, landing with a force equivalent to several missiles striking one spot. Much dirt and grass and more was sent flying from the crash.

Landing, Bunshichi sighed, glad that that had turned out better than he thought. He began to walk towards the crater nearly a moment later after noticing that Souichiro didn't appear to be getting back up. "Ah shit, don't tell me I killed him…" He certainly hoped he didn't; killing was far from something he'd want to do, not to mention Maya would have his head for this too.

Pulling out his comb to fix up his hair, Bunshichi decided to call out to Souichiro. "Hey kid, you still alive there?" When he didn't get an answer, he started to get a little worried. "Fuck… don't tell me he really is dead…"

His current train of thought came to a most abrupt end as suddenly he felt his legs getting grasped hard. "Oh don't worry, I'm far from dead." Looking down, Bunshichi's eyes widened as Souichiro's hands were popping out of the ground, said hands gripping his legs tightly.

Then the hands pulled and he fell backwards, landing unceremoniously before more than a dozen roots shot up around him and quickly wrapped themselves all over him. "Guh…" He tried to move, but found that he was being pinned pretty good; he could just barely move here.

Then the next thing he heard and saw was Souichiro bursting out of the ground and moving nearly a dozen feet into the sky. Bunshichi immediately noticed the high concentration of Ki and saw that Souichiro's right fist was glowing brightly, like a star or something.

With sort of a battle cry, Souichiro came down, his glowing fist being yet another interesting red feather ability of his, one where once his fist makes contact with the enemy, the condensed Ki will shoot into them and proceed to burn away at their insides like fire, only this fire so to speak was far more intense than any flames usually seen in forest fires and the likes.

This was an ability that was meant to kill and meant to do so very painfully.

However, Souichiro was using this ability for the first time on a living person rather than a tree or other object and he would never see just how it'd work on said living person, for that was when Bunshichi actually roared, flaring his Ki.

It was so sudden and his Ki so powerful, that the roots practically disintegrated on the spot and Bunshichi made it a point to immediately roll out of the way.

Souichiro's fist then ended up hitting the spot where his opponent had just been lying, the punch deeply cratering the ground in a way that probably would have made guys like Sakaki feeling a bit challenged and the point of contact caught fire. "Shit!" the true warrior muttered upon missing.

He proceeded to whirl around on the spot, his hair strands once more becoming as sharp as a sword, but the true warrior didn't even make it halfway around before Bunshichi introduced his foot to his face. A cracking sound followed by a cry of pain could be heard being elicited from Souichiro as he skidded across the crater and into the crater's end with a loud boom as he smashed into the earth.

Upon impact, he began to immediately stumble forward, but Bunshichi didn't give him a second's reprieve and moved in on him, slamming his left fist into Souichiro's stomach with incredible force.

The younger of the two doubled over right there and then, heaving air as the new crater created from his crashing just now got large from Bunshichi's attack.

But Bunshichi was far from done as he began to punch away furiously at Souichiro's stomach and chest. With each powerful hit, Souichiro began to slowly but surely come closer to losing consciousness. "This guy… he really ain't holding back…" he thought in pain.

The ground shook more and more with each punch and the crater behind Souichiro was getting bigger with each passing hit as well.

This continued until Souichiro managed to find a small opening between punches to open his mouth and shoot out a fireball.

The suddenness of this attack caused Bunshichi to yell in surprise and duck under it, but as soon as he did, Souichiro stepped forward before viciously kicking the older man in the chin.

Bunshichi's head snapped back and he skidded back several feet. Souichiro ran right after him and kicked him hard in the side before grabbing him by the scruff of his shirt and headbutting him.

Bunshichi once again staggered back, but despite the pain he was now feeling, he still managed to recover enough to see Souichiro throw another punch his way and he ended up jumping out of the crater and taking several quick steps back after that.

Souichir leapt out of the crater as well and his hair strands sprung to life, launching themselves forward, past Bunshichi and embedding themselves in the ground. Souichiro used them to pull himself towards Bunshichi, but the man ducked under him and so Souichiro retracted his hair strands and flipped over so that he could land facing his foe.

He sprinted forth at Bunshichi, only to get a face full of dirt as Bunshichi kicked some right into his eyes. "Fuck!" the true warrior cried as he felt his eyes get irritated from the dirt in them, but opted to keep on charging at Bunshichi, knowing that he would take advantage of it.

He threw a very powerful right punch, but Bunshichi sidestepped the blow, using his left arm to parry it slightly before delivering a punch of his own with his right fist directly into Souichiro's face. Since the dirt was still in his eyes, the punch connected solidly with his nose.

Hissing now, Souichiro threw a left punch, but Bunshichi ducked slightly under it before bringing up a fist in a devastating uppercut that nearly took Souichiro's head off.

The true warrior was launched into the air and crashed onto his back some odd yards away from his liftoff point. "Guh…" He began to get back up, but Bunshichi had leapt into the air after him and came crashing down at that instant, smashing his right foot directly into Souichiro's face, forcing the true warrior back down hard enough to almost literally bury his head in the earth while also nearly making his legs shoot up into the air like something out of a cartoon.

When his legs fell back to the ground, Souichiro could lie there, with Bunshichi's foot still placed on his face.

Wordlessly, Bunshichi reached into his back pocket and pulled out his pack of cigarettes. Thankful that it hadn't been lost in the fight thus far, he took one out and put the pack away. The cigarette now in his mouth, he eyed the currently grounded true warrior.

"So… you gonna call it a quits, kid? Or are we gonna have to go another round or two?" Bunshichi asked as he slowly began to check his pockets for his lighter.

He stopped when Souichiro suddenly jerked. Then the older man found himself trying to keep his foot on Souichiro as the younger teen began to slowly rise from the ground, using just his legs alone to do the job.

Then the true warrior suddenly stretched his left arm out to Bunshichi. Bunshichi, suddenly sensing great danger, elected to jump back as fast he could.

He did so not a nanosecond too soon as Souichiro somehow managed to jump lightly, despite the position he had just been in. He whirled around during his very brief time in the air, scars appearing in the earth below him in the process.

Eventually, Souichiro came to stop and landed on his feet. He leveled his best glare at Bunshichi. "Let's start round two."

Bunshichi looked down at his right foot, the one he had used to step on Souichiro's face. His shoe was gone. More specifically, it lied cut in two a few feet away from where he was standing. His foot itself wasn't entirely unharmed, blood slowly flowing out of a large gash just a few inches above his toes. "Well, shit…" He also saw that his cigarette wasn't quite as long as it was before either.

He looked at Souichiro now. The true warrior's left arm was no longer normal. Instead, it had transformed. Souichiro's left hand had seemed to fold in on itself while from his wrist up to just a bit below his elbow, the flesh had somehow changed, extending itself outwards and formed into a large blade, said blade starting out rather large near its start point around the elbow area and getting thinner towards the tip of it. It looked strong enough and sharp enough to slice through steel.

Souichiro pointed his blade-arm at Bunshichi. "Come on." He did the best come on hither he could manage with said arm.

Bunshichi just let the ruined cigarette fall from his mouth while staring Souichiro down. Sighing, he began to crack his knuckles and his neck. "Sheesh, things can never be easy, can't they?" he spoke aloud. He glanced up at the sky in exasperation before looking back at Souichiro. "Well, I guess I should have seen this coming anyway."

He took a few steps forward, this action putting the true warrior immediately on guard, blade-arm at the ready.

Bunshichi ran a hand through his hair, not caring as it ruffled up the hair. "Alright then. Let's do this."

The ground began to rumble a bit, nearly throwing Souichiro off balance. "What the-?" he began to mutter, only to cut himself short as he suddenly felt a slow concentration and release of Ki. Looking at Bunshichi, he was shocked to see the man begin to be enveloped by purple Ki.

"Get ready, kid," he said before letting out a yell. When he did, the area shook even more and sent dirt and grass and some rubble flying at Souichiro, forcing the true warrior to raise his blade-arm to shield his eyes. Even the building behind him noticeably shook.

Bunshichi at this same time, underwent a bit of a change. His hair suddenly flared up, becoming wild and looking almost alive. His eyes turned completely red, glowing ominously. He released all the Ki he had built up, his sleeves bursting as the muscles in his arms surged a bit.

Souichiro looked past his arm and saw this, his eyes going wide. "What the fuck?!" he thought, for the first time in a long while, actually feeling a bit scared of an opponent.

Bunshichi stopped yelling now and took a step forward, the ground cracking under his foot due to how immense his wild purple Ki was.

Bunshichi had just entered his Rage Mode.

Souichiro openly gaped and unconsciously dropped his guard. Bunshichi charged straight at him, the spot he had just been standing at all but exploding from the sheer speed of it.

Bunshichi punched him insanely hard in the stomach, Souichiro feeling his organs take incredibly damage while also losing whatever air he had. He went flying more than a few dozen yards, crashing into the building and landing in one of its dirtier rooms.

In much pain and heavily disoriented, the true warrior still managed to get to his feet. Just in time to see Bunshichi right in front of him…

Now a good distance from the building, Kenichi and Miu could only stare in shock. "W-Wow… I didn't know Bunshichi-san was so…" He trailed off. Though he couldn't see the fight from this distance, he definitely still feel the Ki of both participants and Bunshichi's Ki was just nothing short of incredible.

Miu, from her spot next to Kenichi, could only nod. "W-What powerful Dou Ki…. It's probably even stronger than Sakaki-san's…"

Chikage and Ethan were also with them, the former standing next to the latter who was still unconscious. However, Miu had finished applying the first-aid just a few minutes ago so her being near him wasn't entirely necessary. "…. I do not know just what it is that you're planning by doing all of this, but it will not work," she stated, trying to keep calm despite being just as shocked by Bunshichi's powerful Ki as well. "While I suppose it is admirable that you are willing to go so far to help your own opponent, for one of your comrades to challenge Nagi is just stupid."

Inwardly though, she wasn't too sure. She knew for a fact that the two of them couldn't have found this place by themselves, so one of the Ryozanpaku masters must have dropped them off. Said master couldn't be seen or even detected, so she reason either said master was hiding somewhere or had just taken off. But nonetheless, it worried her, especially after having called her master, Mikumo, just a minute ago to let her know of the outcome of the match between Kenichi and Ethan. She doubted she was pleased. But to get back on the thought of the Ryozanpaku master, Chikage couldn't help but wonder that, if the master really wasn't here anymore, then just where did the master go? It was worrying in a way.

But the more major concern for her was the battle they were sensing right now. Souichiro's Ki, although diminished from when she had first met him, was still easily a few notches above low level masters as were his own physical abilities. But the strange man, who couldn't have been more than perhaps three or four or perhaps five years at the most older than Souichiro, seemed to be fighting on par with the true warrior. At least, that was what she thought just a moment ago. But now that the unknown man had unleashed his Dou Ki, he now appeared to be even stronger than Souichiro was! In fact, his Ki, though certainly not malevolent in feeling, appeared to be just as great as Souichiro's Ki was back before he was somewhat purified. This just made a small shiver run down Chikage's spine. If Ryozanpaku had an ally such as this man, then what was to say that they didn't have a number of other comrades around the same level? Just the thought of there potentially being more Katsujinken practitioners like this man gave Chikage great worry for YOMI.

As if detecting what she was thinking, Kenichi looked at her rather sheepishly. "Er… well, it seems like he's doing an okay job fighting so far…" As he said that, they could feel the ground rumble beneath their feet and even see parts of the rundown building being blown off as if struck by several missiles. Bunshichi and Souichiro were really going at it.

The Ryozanpaku disciple continued. "And besides, my masters will be helping out on rescuing his sister!" he all but exclaimed. He pointed at Chikage with determination in his eyes. He pointed at her with his left hand. Kenichi blinked. "Eh?! Looks like feeling is finally beginning to come back to it!" he said as he cautiously made and unmade a fist with said hand. Though it still hurt quite a bit, the pain was dying down now.

Chiakge ignored the last statement about his recovering arm and just focused more on what he first said. "Your masters… don't tell me they mean to attack a Yami base?"

Kenichi smiled. "Yep! Chances are, they already figured out which one has his sister in it and are already attacking." He shivered a bit, hoping that if said base had normal everyday people in it, that his masters would restrain themselves from getting too out of hand. If someone like Sakaki and Apachai were there…. Just the thought made the disciple cringe.

"Urgh…" All eyes turned to Ethan, now ignoring the Ki from the raging battle, as they watched the large YOMI member begin to slowly awaken.

"Pollux…" Chikage muttered as she and the others watched Ethan slowly sit up.

Ethan put a hand to his head, still very much in pain despite the first aid given to him. "… I heard… but I am going by myself…. it is my sister who is caught…" he slowly said between breaths.

Kenichi rushed forward and placed his hands on him and gently began to push him onto his back. "No," he firmly said. "The loser has to obey the winner. That's part of Yami's and YOMI's logic, right? Then if so, don't go. If you do, you'll most likely die." His voice was full of nothing but concern for the YOMI member.

Ethan and Chikage looked at him in surprise. They have heard of how kind hearted Kenichi can be, but to see so for themselves was still a bit much.

Miu just smiled from the sidelines. "Kenichi…" she thought. She was unaware of the fact that she was blushing as she gazed at Kenichi.

Kenichi ignored the looks of shock on the faces of the YOMI members and now turned towards the direction of the rundown building. Even now, all of them could feel the ground tremble a bit. "And besides," he began, "I think we should wait to see how this will turn out." A pause. "Sure hope Bunshichi-san is okay."

Then suddenly, a blur shot right past him and Miu. He and Miu suddenly tensed. "Just what was that?" Miu asked.

Kenichi just blinked stupidly. "I-I don't know." All he did know was that whatever it was, it just shot right past him and was heading towards the rundown building at impressive speeds.

Kenichi did the best he could to keep the sudden lump in his throat from getting to him.

Back with the battle, Bunshichi was doing more than just being okay.

Souichiro stumbled a bit backwards in an attempt to put some distance between himself and Bunshichi, but he knew that it was futile action; for the past minute or so now, Bunshichi has been keeping him almost entirely on the defensive. The true warrior could only be thankful to the passive regenerative red feather ability he had, otherwise he was certain he'd be black and blue all over by now. Hell, he was certain that if it came down to it, he could even survive being decapitated with this ability, but he wasn't willing to test that out. And he certainly wasn't willing to continue dragging this out.

As Bunshichi, still in his Rage Mode, came walking up to Souichiro, said true warrior couldn't help but spare a glance around the room. It was in complete and utter disarray. Holes big enough for cars to fit in could be seen in some walls and even in the floor while other walls were just straight up gone. Craters of varying sizes were all over the place and the ceiling of not just this room, but every room above it were just gone, a nasty result of a vicious uppercut that Bunshichi had done just some time ago.

And the same could be said for many other rooms as well. Their fight thus far had been a destructive one and it just wasn't letting up. Already, more than half of the huge building had been reduced to nothing more than rubble.

"And if I'm not careful, I could end up that way too," Souichiro thought as he held his blade-arm up in a defensive posture. Said arm had proved to be remarkably effective by being able to smack aside some of Bunshichi's punches, but the punches hurt like hell even then. The true warrior wasn't sure how much longer he could do this before finally having to resort on his last trump card, perhaps the only real technique he had ever been taught…

"Well?" Bunshichi said, breaking Souichiro's thought process. "You finally gonna give up?"

Souichiro narrowed his eyes at him. "Fuck you," he simply said.

Bunshichi stopped in his tracks. "Something's up…" he began to think, "I don't know why, but something ain't right. It's almost like, in a weird ass, this punk is still holding back something…"

He was snapped out of his thoughts when Souichiro's hair strands extended outwards and quickly sliced up a piece of the floor before wrapping around the now cut piece and throwing it at bullet speeds at him.

With barely a grunt, Bunshichi thrust his fist outwards as the supersonic piece moved in. His punch combined with the sheer, unmatched potency of his Dou Ki caused the piece to be reduced to dust before it even got anywhere close to him.

But it provided Souichiro with ample time to rush forward, under the destroy piece and slash with his blade arm. He had done this so quickly that Bunshichi just barely managed to move back in time to avoid being cleaved in two at the waist. But the blade-arm still connected a bit and drew blood as a large gash appeared on Bunshichi's stomach.

"Fuck!" the older man yelled as he put a hand to his stomach. If he wasn't careful, this wound would be letting out a lot of blood. He aimed a punch downwards at Souichiro following this.

However, Souichiro dodged and suddenly stood up to his full height, almost being able to look Bunshichi in the eyes. Bunshichi randomly and vaguely noted that Souichiro has grown taller since he last saw the kid up close and he would most likely continue to grow taller over the next few years.

But he still felt that he held the advantage in height and in arm length and chose that instant to demonstrate as he launched another punch to force Souichiro back.

Instead, Souichiro ducked, knowing that if he didn't, the sheer amount of Ki Bunshichi had would hit him instead of the fist. Following this, he stabbed upwards at Bunshichi's face with his blade-arm, but before he could reach, Bunshichi kicked him hard in the stomach, knocking him back more than a dozen meters at rocket speeds.

Crashing through a wall and skipping across the ground like a rock across a lake, Souichiro ended up disoriented from the hit, so much so that he ended up returning his blade-arm back to normal.

He just scarcely managed to regain his sense enough from his new spot on the floor to roll out of the way before Bunshichi's foot could meet his face. "Shit, that would have probably popped my head!" he thought almost frantically as a massive crater formed upon impact. The formation of the crater caused Souichiro to lose his footing and he could only stare in surprise for a brief second before Bunshichi retracted his foot from the epicenter of the crater and punch in his direction.

The true warrior raised his arms in time to guard against the great air pressure of the distant punch and as he skidded back several yards, he spat out five fireballs in rapid succession.

But Bunshichi charged forth and with just a roar, caused his Ki to burst and disperse the first four fireballs while punching the last one into nothingness.

"You must be shitting me…" Souichiro thought before summoning roots from the ground in an attempt to slow Bunshichi's charge.

But the man refused to be slowed as some roots simply weren't moving fast enough to grab him while the ones that were only succeeded in getting pulled out of the ground.

With an eyebrow twitch, Souichiro charge forth at his opponent. Not even a microsecond later, the two collided with the force of two runaway semi-trucks, the crater deepening beneath them.

However, Souichiro found himself getting tackled and forced back. Such was the strength of Bunshichi in Rage Mode. He growled as he tried to dig his feet in to prevent himself from being moved back more, but found out just as quickly that it wasn't going to work, so he slammed his elbow into Bunshichi's exposed back as hard as he could, but the older man just seemed to shrug it off.

Upping his attack, Souichiro turned his hair into steel-cutting blades again and began to start slicing away at Bunshichi's back.

That got a reaction out of the man as he yelled in pain, but rather than let go of Souichiro, he simply reared back his right fist and buried it into Souichiro's gut. The true warrior all but went flying, only not doing so due to Bunshichi's grip on him.

The true warrior then began to slump to the ground and it was only when his knees were on the ground that Bunshichi stopped his tackle and let go of him. But this was a mistake as Souichiro, although coughing up blood now, suddenly lunged forth and punched Bunshichi ferociously across the face. Bunshichi's head snapped to the side fast enough for his neck to crack slightly, blood flying out of his mouth.

Souichiro then kneed him in the gut, taking all the wind out of his sails before gripping the man by his head and slamming a knee into his face. Bunshichi's head snapped back and he staggered, but then he overcame the pain in the blink of an eye and leaned forward at blindingly fast speeds, his head smashing right into Souichiro's.

The true warrior stumbled back, clutching his head now. But when he did so, he made the mistake of his hands covering his eyes. This in turn allowed Bunshichi to attack once more and it was by far his most devastating one yet.

Bunshichi reared back his right leg and kicked Souichiro squarely in the groin.

Souichiro's hands along with the rest of him froze in place as the pain struck him. His mouth opened wide, almost comically so and his eyes bugged out. He collapsed to the floor with his hands between his legs a second later. "Arrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrggggggggggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhh! He yelled.

Bunshichi just looked at him, an oddly proud smile on his face. "Yeah, looks like that finally put a stop to you, huh?" he said. He then eyed the large crater that had formed from the shockwave of the groin kick and a part of his mind couldn't help but cringe at what he had just done.

He stood there for a minute, just watching Souichiro remain relatively still now before finally deciding to drop his Rage Mode. Almost immediately, sweat began to pour off of him like no tomorrow. Bunshichi nearly even fell to his knees. Unleashing his Dou Ki like that always winded him a bit and using it for so long this time had taken quite a lot out of him, especially with the fight that Souichiro had put up.

He took a few steps towards Souichiro. "Alright. I think you've had enough too, kid," he said as he began to reach his arm out to him, intending to grab him and take him back to Maya so that he could potentially be purified of the rest of the malevolent Ki within him.

"Oh… I don't… think… so…" Souichiro muttered darkly as he slowly lifted his head and glared at Bunshichi.

Suddenly, roots appeared from the ground and wrapped themselves around Bunshichi's extended arm and his legs. "Wha-?!" he began, but didn't finish.

The reason why he didn't finish? Souichiro opened his mouth wide and fired a fireball at him.

"Urgh." Bunshichi pulled his arm loose from the vine and raised both arms to block his chest and head from the fireball, but only managed to do so barely due to it being done at point blank range. "Argh!" he cried out as the fireball struck him, burning away his shirt and also giving him immediately second degree burns on his arms and part of his chest and stomach.

Souichiro then leg swept the older man and then pounced, punching him hard in the face, many spider web cracks forming from the attack as it struck. Bunshichi's head also bounced off the ground a bit from the force.

Then the true warrior reared back the same fist, but when he did, suddenly activating a red feather ability, small spikes appeared on his knuckles and then he punched Bunshichi right in the gash from earlier.

Bunshichi yelled out in absolute agony from the fierce hit to an already bad wound. But still, he managed the energy to move, slamming a knee into the side of Souichiro's head thanks to the positioning they were in.

The sudden hit from Bunshichi sent Souichiro rolling a bit, but he quickly regained his footing and rose to his full height. He glared once more at Bunshichi, who rolled over onto his stomach and forced himself to stand up, but it was slow going.

"I…" Souichiro began. "I really don't want to use this technique… but even if you're not in that crazy mode of yours, I'm probably gonna have to use it to really put you down…" he said.

He took a bit of a deep breath, feeling nervous. Given how different his body is compared to others due to the red feather abilities, he wasn't too sure if there would be any kind of side effects, if there are even any at all. But the nonetheless, he began to start things off.

Bunshichi, still struggling immensely to stand, paused briefly as he felt Souichiro's Ki slowly begin to rise. What's more is that the Ki was starting to feel different from just a moment ago. "What is he…?"

He watched as Souichiro then spread his feet apart a bit as he also raised his arms out to his side. The true warrior was also taking a bit of a deep breath too as he began to move his arms in an almost circular motion. Bunshichi also noted that his eyes were closed too.

But then Souichiro's eyes opened suddenly and Bunshichi could literally feel the teen's Ki about to all but explode forth. "Sei-!" Souichiro began, only to stop when he suddenly felt a hand on his left shoulder.

Startled, he canceled the technique before fully doing and whirled around on the spot to see who just showed up. He was more than a little surprised at who it was. "Kajima!"

Bunshichi was wide eyed as well. "When did this guy show up?!" he thought in a panic, immediately realizing that the new arrival, a tall and well built teen in a muscle shirt, unzipped-fur collared vest and jeans, was most definitely not here to help him.

Kajima ran one of his bandaged hands through his dark scraggy hair, his one eye closed in an eye-smile. "Hey there, Souichiro! It has been a while, huh?" he casually said, seemingly oblivious to just what had been going on not even a moment ago.

Souichiro just gaped at him, the whole tense atmosphere just gone now. "What are you doing here?" he demanded as he almost literally got right in Kajima's face.

Kajima placed his hands on the true warrior's shoulders and gently pushed him away, trying to placate him. "Ah, no need to get so worked up," he began, his smile never wavering, "I'm here for two things though. The first, well, to see you of course. Hope you're doing okay."

Souichiro's right eyebrow twitched as did Bunshichi's, albeit the latter's eyebrow twitch was done so quite tiredly. "I-I've been hanging in there," he muttered a few seconds later, taken aback entirely by how nonchalant and even cheerful Kajima appeared to be. "What's the second thing?"

At this, Kajima actually looked serious. This didn't show through in his smile, but rather through his Ki, which suddenly made itself known. Bunshichi tensed despite his current state. Though Souichiro's Ki was much larger by far, Kajima's Ki was startling dark and intense. Even excluding his current injuries, Bunshichi knew that if he and Kajima were to have fought, it wouldn't have been an easy fight.

"My master, the One Shadow, has finally found some time to personally meet you," he said.

Souichiro's eyes widened. "Y-You mean, he'll….?"

A nod was what replied to his words. "Yes. My master will now be able to discuss and attempt to help you in your current condition." Kajima looked Souichiro over, now visibly taking note of the changes to Souichiro since the last time he had ever saw the teen. He held up a finger though. "But he's always a busy guy." He took a moment to chuckle. "So if you still want to meet with him and talk things over, you have to go right now. And that's why I'm here; to take you to him."

Souichiro clenched his fists, deep in thought. On the one hand, he still more or less had unfinished business with Bunshichi – he became distinctly more and more aware of said man getting back to his feet – and if something wasn't done right now about him, then chances are he'll have to deal with him and everyone else at some later point in time. And given how tough a fight he had just had, he doubted he'd be able to walk away freely if there was another battle between them. But on the other hand, he had been pestering the One Shadow and Kensei for a while now and now the former was finally willing to hear him out and he can bring it to the One Shadow's attention that something was off with him. Still, it was a worrying thought, how the One Shadow would react to the news that Sohaku no longer appeared to be within Souichiro's mindscape. But that was something he'd just have to deal with.

The true warrior looked Kajima dead in the eyes. "…Fine. Take me to him now."

Kajima simply nodded and began to turn away. "Then just follow me."

As he and Souichiro turned to leave, the latter quickly spared a glance at Bunshichi. "Sorry. Looks like we're gonna have to finish this up next time," he said.

Bunshichi grunted as he attempted to take a step forward. "Hey now, you-," he began. He did finish because then faster than the eye could even blink, Kajima suddenly disappeared from where he had been at and appeared next to Bunshichi, sweeping his legs out from under him. Bunshchi let out a surprising yelp as he fell on his back.

Kajima laughed. "I'm sorry, but we really are in a bit of a rush. Your battle just now, at least the part I saw, was most magnificent though. So with that said, I hope we get to see you again in the future." He then seemed to all but blur from Bunshichi's line of sight and reappear in front of Souichiro. "Alright, let's go."

With a nod as his reply, Souichiro continued to walk after Kajima, until the latter girded his legs and sprinted off. Souichiro did the same and so the two of them disappeared entirely from Bunshichi's sight as he tried to get back.

With a groan of both pain and exasperation, Bunshichi's head dropped back onto the soft earth. "Fuck…" He put a hand to his still bleeding gash, though thankfully for him it wasn't bleeding as much now. "Maya's gonna be pissed about this…" He weakly chuckled.

Then he looked off into the distance, just in time to barely make out the rapidly approaching forms of Kenichi and Miu. The two must have felt his Ki drop and got worried for him or something, he figured. With the knowledge that they were coming, he finally succumbed to his bleeding injuries and passed out.

Elsewhere, the One Shadow sat in his usual seat in the room where all of the One Shadow Nine Fists would hold their meetings. He was the only one there, with Kensei being out and about, training his other disciples right now.

He currently had a cell phone to his ear, his disciple reporting in to him. "Good job. Bring him straight to the conference room as soon as you arrive," he said before hanging up.

Putting away the phone, the One Shadow closed his eyes. "So the time has finally come…" he thought. Just earlier, he had moved what could now essentially be called a pod to a secret room, one which just so happened to be located behind the wall that in turn was behind his seat. He eyed said spot almost disinterestedly. "It is a shame to have to do this, but with everything that has occurred, he's no longer a reliable asset," he continued to think.

Looking forward once more, the One Shadow began to wait patiently for when his disciple and Susano-o will return.

Soon, Souichiro will be here and he will be laid to rest for the sake of adding a new member to the One Shadow Nine Fists.

Permanently laid to rest.

* * *

Well, that's it for this chapter! Would've actually made the fight between the two powerhouses longer, but I didn't want to risk any sort of fighting fatigue. Fights that are too long or too short do tend to get kinda weary to watch after all, ha ha ha.

Anyways, up next will be more of Souichiro as the next main event so to call it is literally right around the corner next chapter. A major player will be brought into the scene and with it a number of changes will finally be set in motion (it only took me several chapters to finally get the changes going, ha ha ha) and with these changes, I may potentially be bringing To Fight a God to a close. But of course, said ending is still a ways away.

Hope you enjoyed it and be sure to review!


	30. Chapter 30

Wow, it certainly has been a while since my last update! So in regards to that, my bad, my bad. It's just that I have been spending more and more time on my side-project and you can expect it to be this way too in between chapter updates. Also, on another note in regards to this being a bit of a late update, I've been preparing for my new semester and I'm taking the max number of classes that can be taken. And all of them are upper division classes so I can expect a lot of reading and potentially a lot of work for each class to eat up my time. So I can't exactly say whether or not I'll be able to keep a consistent update schedule for this.

Now with that out of the way…..

**IMPORTANT:** Believe it or not, people, but this fic is reaching its end! But as much as I'd like to tell you all just how many more chapters are left until the conclusion, I myself don't know as I am still mentally reviewing/finalizing the last several big details or so. But not to worry; this is merely the first season so to speak; a sequel fic to this will be written some time in the future! And as much of a surprise I am sure this is for me to end it, well, it's always been something I have had planned for a while now. Well, that, and as I'm sure happens to a number of you, new fanfic ideas are constantly running through my head like every day and so I think it's time I move onto the next one. Which is yet another reason why I wish to get this one finished up first before starting on the next new fic (which I am still thinking over).

And while I could simply continue this fic rather than split it up into two separate fics, I wish to avoid a form of arc fatigue as while I can't exactly say how long it would have been by the time I completed it, it definitely would have been around 60 chapters long if not longer. And I've already put this fic on hold once in the past and that is yet another I wish to avoid for a second time.

So with all of that said, I do sincerely hope that you understand my reasons for that and will continue to hopefully enjoy this fic until its (relatively) quickly coming end!

Chapter 30

Souichiro did his best to stifle a growl as it threatened to escape his throat. It had taken nearly the better part of an entire day just to get from the battle site where he had fought Bunshichi all the way to, well, wherever this place was. It didn't help his mood that he had very little time to rest on the way here in addition to the fact that Kajima had made him cover up his eyes really well before being led to this clearly large building. It was just another sign that Yami didn't trust him with a number of things.

"And thanks for taking me personally to him too," the true warrior muttered, his voice dripping with sarcasm. Kajima, upon removing Souichiro's blindfold when they arrived here, had simply informed him of the directions of where to go and took his leave, apparently having yet another mission or something to do. At least the disciple of the One Shadow had been kind enough to pat him on the shoulder and wish him luck in the meeting with his master.

And so the true warrior traversed the unsettlingly empty hallways and rooms of the large building. It was quite unnerving even for someone like him. "This…. is really, really beginning to creep the hell out of me….." he thought, growing tenser and tenser by the moment. Hell, it was so eerily quiet and devoid of life that the sound of his own footsteps were beginning to give him a slight case of chills. Doubt slowly made its way into his heart, doubt that the One Shadow wasn't actually here at all and he was simply being forced to walk around for the sheer hell of it. This felt irrational, he knew, but emotions were never exactly rational to begin with sometimes.

But nonetheless, Souichiro followed the directions Kajima had given him without a spoken complaint – mentally was a different matter all together – and soon enough, Souichiro found him on one of the higher floors of the building right outside incredibly large doors.

"This is definitely the place," he said aloud to himself. He wasn't sure why, but he could sense something. Something off. Something even foul. Something powerful.

But what's more, what really unnerved him now, was that this something felt _familiar_. But at the same time, he couldn't quite put his finger on it.

Taking a deep breath, Souichiro opened the large doors and walked in.

And was greeted with an empty room. The true warrior gave the place a quick once over, noting the eight seats arranged in a circular manner around this large, throne-like one. "A…. conference room?" Souichiro thought in confusion.

He took a few steps forward, the feeling of dread he had been having the past few moments being seriously off put by the sudden lack of any response to his entrance just now. "So much for meeting him…." He muttered.

"I wouldn't say that."

Souichiro nearly froze in place before snapping out of it and whirling around, fists up instinctively in a fighting stance. Completing his full turn, he could only blink dumbly as he spotted the One Shadow standing right by the door. Inside the room. "I didn't even sense him!" he thought in an odd sense of panic.

But this too was off set by something new: Souichiro could see the One Shadow's face.

Now for the first time out of the very few times he had met the man, the true warrior finally got to see him without anything obscuring his face. and Souichiro was just a bit surprised to notice that he appeared to have a bit of an angular, yet strong face, one that even he had to grudgingly admit would attract the ladies. But what surprised him was the man's startlingly blue eyes and blond hair that was a bit messy yet still stylish.

What really drew Souichiro's attention though was that the One Shadow's blond hair seemed oddly reminiscent of someone else, though the name wouldn't come to mind.

He was snapped out of his thoughts when the One Shadow suddenly began to walk towards him. "Given how desperately you have been trying to contact me or your master, let us get straight to the point then. You're here in regards for help for your current condition," he said.

Souichiro hesitated before replying, putting up his guard even more despite the One Shadow's currently relaxed state of being. "Yeah," he replied concisely. He reluctantly dropped his stance a few seconds after replying.

The One Shadow looked him over briefly. "Your Ki…. it has decreased by a fair amount since I last saw you. Not to mention the more obvious changes to your appearance," he remarked, taking note of Souichiro's return to his normal skin color and one normal eye ever since the Shinpaku Alliance battle.

The One Shadow seemed perfectly at ease as he spoke just now. But he wasn't done just yet. "However, I imagine that there is more to this matter than just a decrease in your abilities."

Souichiro was surprised by how insightful he appeared to be. "…. Just who are you, really?" he asked instead of actually replying. The fact that he was so spot on as to what his situation was, was more than a little unnerving and that strange sense of recognizing the hair color was really gnawing at him now.

If the question bothered the One Shadow, he didn't show it. Instead, the leader of Yami simply replied to the question about his identity as though he was replying to the weather. "Furinji Saiga," he calmly answered.

Souichiro's eyes went wide. "That girl!" he thought in shock, thinking back to the blond girl who had tried to fight alongside the others against him! The same last name and shade of blond!

He took a few unconscious steps back in shock. "You…. you're related to that Furinji girl from the Shinpaku Alliance…." It wasn't stated as a question, but as an actual statement.

The One Shadow, Furinji Saiga, didn't so much as blink in response. "Indeed I am. She is my daughter," he bluntly replied.

Souichiro's jaw dropped. "Y-Your daughter…." His mind began to swirl. This guy was the leader of a group that was opposed to the same group that his daughter is a part of? In the strangest of ways, as his mind began to work at a million miles a minute, Souichiro noted that this was beginning to sound a bit familiar.

Saiga just stared at him. "I believe the purpose of this meeting is in regards to your current state, not my family affairs."

That snapped Souichiro out of his thoughts. "But, she's your own daughter…." He growled out, "don't you fucking care?! She's part of the same damn group that you Yami guys and YOMI are out to kill!"

Saiga, for the briefest of seconds, showed some kind of emotion, but it passed by too quickly for Souichiro to identify it. "I'm well aware of that."

The leader of Yami proceeded to walk right past the true warrior and move closer to his seat. "And before you accuse me of not caring about her, to the contrary, I do," he said.

Souichiro could only blink once again dumbly as that had actually been what he was about to do, but Saiga saw it coming a mile away. It was only a vague thought in his mind that the casual manner in which he assessed and read the situation was similar yet much more efficient than how Kajima had been able to see through his moves.

Saiga, upon reaching his seat, turned and faced Souichiro. "Now, with hopefully all of that out of the way, I believe it is time for us to get to the matter at hand. Your condition."

The One Shadow promptly reached over to something that Souichiro couldn't see, but the latter heard a click of sorts and the next thing he knew, that wall directly behind his seat.

"Cliché much…?" Souichiro thought only to snap out of his thoughts yet again as Saiga began to walk towards the new opening and gesture for Souichiro to follow him.

"You came here in hopes of help for your condition. Not just your diminish power, but also in regards to Sohaku, I'd imagine." As he took his time walking, he craned his head a bit in Souichiro's direction in time to see him with eyes wide in shock. "It would appear that I am correct. Let me take a bit of a guess; his very presence had always been firmly implanted within your mind, but following your encounter with whatever it was that caused this change in you – the Amaterasu Gate, I believe it was – his presence, which varied in strength at times, completely vanished."

Souichiro actually stopped walking.

That was way too accurate to have just been a guess. Even it was just a more advanced form of whatever skill or technique that Kajima possessed, by reading a person's heart, it was still very disconcerting to see in action.

"Come," Saiga said, sensing that Souichiro had stopped walking without even looking. "What I am about to show you will answer any further questions you have and resolve your problem."

Souichiro hesitated for a second before continuing to follow Saiga.

A few minutes later, they finally reached their destination, a large room with a number of machines that Souichiro just couldn't recognize, only knowing that this was pretty damn advanced stuff he was laying eyes on.

But what held his attention the most was that the closer they had gotten to this room, the stronger that sense of dread he still had was getting. Whatever had nearly made him reconsider meeting the One Shadow earlier before he entered the room was coming right from this room.

"Here." Saiga had come to a stop just several feet away from the end of the room opposite from the room's entrance. More specifically, Saiga was standing just a few feet away from a huge incubation tank.

Souichiro looked at the tank as he moved a bit closer to it, feeling a mix of curiosity and slight fear.

At first, as he tried to see through the thick fog-like fluid in the tank, the true warrior couldn't see anything. This was in part due to how dark the room was and thus he still needed a few seconds for his eyes to fully adjust to the sudden change from the brightness of the conference room and short hallway of earlier to the surprising darkness of whatever this room was supposed to be.

But when his eyes finally adjusted to the darkness and the strange fog-like fluid, Souichiro recoiled as though he had just been struck by lightning right before freezing.

Then he began to start shaking.

"N-No….."

Meanwhile, at Ryozanpaku, Kenichi and Miu were in the midst of having a bit of a conversation with Masataka. "So the masters of Ryozanpaku managed to rescue the girl after all…." Masataka muttered in amazement.

Just yesterday, some time following Kenichi's battle with Ethan, Sakaki had managed to rescue the YOMI member's sister, Rachel, from Yami as they had been about to take her elsewhere. As of now, both siblings were currently under observation by both Akisame and a few other people that had been involved in the matter as well as Ethan was still healing from his fight with Kenichi while Rachel was still knocked out.

"Yeah. At least both are okay now…" Kenichi looked relieved.

"But what about your friend, Bunshichi-san?" Miu asked from her spot next to Kenichi as all three of them currently sat outside on the steps of the dojo, facing the training ground.

"Ah, right! How is he?!" Kenichi nearly yelled. "He looked really hurt just yesterday!"

Masataka chuckled a little sheepishly. "Ah, Bunshichi? No need to worry about him; he's just resting up in Akisame-san's clinic over there. The injuries he had have already been treated and all so it's just a matter of time before he's fully healed."

Then the Juken Club captain began to rub his chin in seemingly deep thought. "Still…" He sounded quiet now. "Never would have thought I'd see him that beat up. I've only seen him ever really injured once before and this time around it looked even worse than that time…." He muttered, thinking back to the state he had found Bunshichi in in the aftermath of the latter's fight against Mitsuomi.

Kenichi unconsciously gulped as he heard those words loud and clear. Though Bunshichi's power had definitely been a surprise, he never would have imagined him to get so roughed up fighting Souichiro. And this was only the second time he's been this seriously hurt? He shivered at the mere thought of potentially meeting who beat him the first time.

"Really?" Miu asked, sounding both shocked and intrigued. Shocked because, like Kenichi, she couldn't imagine the older man ever being beaten before. Despite being in his early twenties, the sheer amount of Ki and the intensity of it had nearly blown her away even from such a distance between the two. That Bunshichi had been defeated before hinted that there is yet another person out there who is possibly stronger than him. If it were an elite master, much like the ones here at Ryozanpaku, she'd understand, but if not, the mere fact that a normal master class fighter was able to fight and defeat Bunshichi was a shocker to her. "Who beat him?"

Masataka looked down at the ground as he answered, his voice equal parts sheepish and just a tad bit sullen. "Er, my brother did."

Kenichi's and Miu's eyes nearly bugged out of their sockets. "Your brother?!" both exclaimed in unison.

Masataka rubbed the back of his head. "Yeah. Back then, the two were good friends with one another, but things got a little strained between them. Long story short, Bunshichi fought my brother and lost. Nearly died too."

Masataka then turned to see both of the teens' faces in complete and utter shock. "N-Nearly died…." Kenichi muttered.

"W-Well, Bunshichi just couldn't bring himself to go all out on him and also pulled his last punch to avoid hurting him. That amongst one other factor brought him down." He began to think on this a little more. "But if the two were to fight again, well, Bunshichi would win. My brother may be a more skilled person, at least in terms of martial arts, but Bunshichi is still really damn strong."

Both teens of Ryozanpaku fell silent as they tried to digest this new piece of information. "A-Anyways," Kenichi eventually said, "looks like getting Souichiro was a failure…" he continued, trying to steer the topic of conversation elsewhere.

Masataka nodded. "Yeah…." He sighed.

Miu did her best to try and cheer him via an optimistic expression. "I'm sure we'll managed to bring him in and purify the rest of his Ki soon enough," she said as confidently as she could. "Still, I'm surprised by how sudden Maya-san decided to have Bunshichi-san try to get him."

"Eh, Aya was trying to use her Dragon Eyes to see what was going on with him a bit recently and the very little bit she did get to see with it showed her that something was going to be happening soon. Though she didn't know what that 'something' was, she still told her and things went from there," Masataka explained.

"Ah." Miu looked satisfied with that answer as did Kenichi.

"Still." Masataka leaned forward a bit, looking serious. "Regardless of how we failed…. again…. I think that whatever it was that Aya saw coming…. it is just unavoidable."

Kenichi and Miu just stared at him. "And…. is that a good thing or a bad thing…?" the former asked a little nervously, not liking the tone Masataka's voice had taken.

"From how nervous I'm feeling…. Bad," Masataka replied grimly. "Really, really bad."

Back with Souichiro, the true warrior remained almost literally rooted to the spot that he was in. His arms now hung limply at his sides while his mouth was wide open. He had no idea how long he had been standing in his current position. Minutes maybe. Or maybe longer than even that.

But none of that mattered right now. It didn't matter for one very simple reason.

Sohaku was the one inside the tank.

Souichiro, for the first time since he laid eyes on Sohaku, moved, albeit numbly. "H-How?" he whispered to Saiga, who was still standing where he was too. "Why?"

Saiga looked dispassionately at the true warrior as he replied. "Back when you first joined us, you remember us performing a number of tests on you, yes?" he began, "It was during one of those tests that one of the scientists working for us withdrew a sample of the DNA from your right eye. More specifically, the eye that was once Sohaku's, now implanted in you." He spoke without any hesitation and with little to no emotion in his voice. It sounded as though he was speaking some pre-recorded lines to Souichiro. "Following that, though it would certainly seem impossible at the time, the people under my command had eventually been able to use the sample retrieved from the eye to create and rapidly grow a new body. For your father as you can clearly see."

Souichiro clenched his fists so tightly that they drew blood. "That isn't what I meant!" he yelled. "What I really want to fucking know is WHY?!"

The room shook as Souichiro's Ki flared dramatically. Saiga, however, seemed completely unfazed. "So that he can join us."

His simple reply made Souichiro suddenly fall silent, his flaring Ki dropping.

"Back in the past, the two of us had met in regards to something that I have no intention of explaining to you," Saiga continued without a care, "it was during that time that the two of us had formed a partnership of sorts. I supplied him with some capable people to work for him and in return, once his goal of achieving the power of Susano-o was completed, he would in turn help us with our own plan."

It was at the precise second he finished speaking that he began to finally move, slowly walking towards Souichiro. The sheer suddenness of this was enough to make Souichiro react in the form of putting his guard up, his Ki soaring once more in the process. At the same time, the true warrior also backed away from Saiga and from the tank of the seemingly sleeping Sohaku. So focused was he on Saiga that he didn't notice a particularly interesting piece of machinery near Sohaku's tank faintly glowing with a monstrous unnatural Ki that he would have recognized as his own. More specifically, the Ki of Suano-o, the collective power of the red feathers he had absorbed.

"…. Why are you telling me all of this? It's as if that shitty father of mine got what he was looking for anyway," Souichiro demanded as he readied himself for a fight.

Infuriatingly enough for him, Saiga had yet to take up any sort of fighting stance. "Simple. Today is the day he will achieve his goal and begin upholding his end of our bargain. As for you…"

Suddenly Souichiro felt his vision blur badly as well as all of the air leaving his lungs. He was vaguely aware of himself flying backwards and through a wall and into another room.

He groaned as the pain finally began to hit him and slowly began to stand up, coughing up blood as he did so. Whatever had hit him did so right in his stomach. He could tell this from both where the pain seemed to be concentrating and also by the now messed up state of his shirt.

Upon getting back on his feet, Souichiro looked forward, shocked to see a large hole in the wall that he was undoubtedly knocked through.

And Saiga was just walking right through it.

"It has come to my attention that you have become rather unstable ever since you were sent to Koryu High School and in more than just one way, it would seem. In addition to this, there really is nothing that can be done to 'fix' your current state as you had hoped. And for yet a third reason…. though it does pain me slightly to do this…. you must now die."

Saiga seemed to just blur out of existence itself right before Souichiro's own eyes. The true warrior just barely had time to put up his guard before he felt something slam into him and knock him right down the hall.

He yelled out in pain, but quickly forced himself up. "You bastard….!" he growled out.

He looked down the hall to see Saiga standing there now. Souichiro's right eyebrow twitched in ever growing rage as the One Shadow simply stood there, but he was still just calm enough to understand that perhaps the man was simply being cautious about his remaining red feather abilities.

It still wouldn't mean he'd just let this slide.

Souichiro stomped forth, his Ki flaring enough to make the walls in his immediate vicinity begin to crack horrifically and in some cases just flat out crumble. The true warrior then let loose a massive fireball that proceeded to shoot right down the hallway, its heat so intense that the steel-like walls heated up to the point of nearly melting as it shot forward faster than a bullet.

But quicker than almost even Souichiro's eyes could keep up with, Saiga leapt up into the air and kicked at the ceiling directly above him, destroying it like nothing. As a result, the fireball missed him and only succeeded in blasting through yet another wall and shooting all the way out of the building just a few seconds later.

"Shit!" Souichiro thought when suddenly the ceiling right above practically exploded, taking him by surprise.

And out of the new hole came Saiga, who landed swiftly before Souichiro and almost literally buried his fist into Souichiro's chest, knocking the air out of him yet again. Souichiro ended up slamming into the wall, but not enough to go through it, merely crack it by a fair amount.

This ended up being even worse than if he had been knocked through it as he ended up recoiling from that bit of force and stumbled towards Saiga, who promptly sidestepped him, tripped him and then kicked him hard in the gut as soon as he hit the floor.

Souichiro skidded across the floor like some kind of stepping stone. Pain flooded his sense, he gasped for air, but found himself having a bit of trouble doing so. Though he had recovered from his battle with Bunshichi in extremely short order, he was still feeling just a bit of phantom pain from the fight in addition to feeling a bit run down still from having traveled to this place without taking any chances to rest and now all of that was coming back to bite him in the rear.

But despite the pain, he was still just alert enough to sense Saiga approaching and so he brought his hair strands to life, slicing anything and everything within seven feet of his being. Saiga just leapt back a few feet to avoid this, but as he did so, Souichiro got up and rushed right at him as fast as he could. With his hair strands still violently lashing out to keep Saiga from hitting him, the true warrior reared back his right fist and punched forward with as much strength as he could muster.

Saiga reached out and stopped the punch with his left hand, deftly catching it.

The ground beneath the two cratered to the point where a hole nearly formed. The walls behind Saiga were utterly devastated by the power as any and all glass in the area shattered as well.

But Saiga remained completely unharmed.

Souichiro could only stare dumbly. "Fuck me…." he thought, noting that he had only managed to force the man a few inches from the blocked attack. The sole consolation from this was that, judging by how slightly tense Saiga's left arm appeared to be now, it had taken a bit more effort than expected for the One Shadow to stop the punch. But it was still nowhere near enough for him to actually use his full strength.

"Despite being in a weakened state, your Ki and physical abilities are still a few levels above that of an ordinary master class fighter. Impressive, as expected of Susano-o," Saiga complimented, "even if you will only remain so for just a while longer."

Growling, Souichiro freed himself from Saiga's grip and transformed his left arm into a blade, which he promptly swung at the man. The leader of Yami sidestepped, and in response to this dodge, Souichiro swung again, this time diagonally with enough force to generate pure air pressure that could slice through steel like butter.

Saiga leapt right over the strike, spinning as to avoid the diagonal cut. Souichiro then used another red feather ability, turning his blade-arm invisible. "Try dodging this now, you son of a bitch," he snarled before slashing again.

The sudden invisibility of the arm seemed to take Saiga by surprise, shown through the slight raising of his left eyebrow, but nonetheless, the One Shadow dodged the strike – a perfect downwards slash – with just as much ease as the other times before.

Then Saiga struck, darting forth and kneeing Souichiro right in the face, staggering the true warrior before following it up with a powerful blow to the stomach. As Souichiro doubled over, his arm returning to both its visible state and back to normal, Saiga uppercutted him hard enough to fling him into the ceiling, bouncing off of it and smashing into the ground several yards away.

Souichiro was now completely disoriented, his mind swirling as Saiga once again calmly approached. All the true warrior knew, even while barely coherent right now, was that while he may physically be able to give the One Shadow a bit of a challenge, the difference in actual martial arts skill and experience between the two of them was nothing short of phenomenal.

"Do get back up," Saiga calmly said as Souichiro slowly began to regain his bearings. "Though I am resolved to kill you, it wouldn't just feel right to kill you in such a defenseless state, as though you're some kind of child."

Souichiro raised his head to look into Saiga's eyes. "He isn't lying…" he silently noted after half a minute of just staring into the man's eyes. The fact that he had yet to attack him just served as more proof.

Slowly and shakily, the true warrior got back up, staring at Saiga the entire time. Unlike before, he tried to think through this whole thing as calmly as he could manage. "Since he's Kajima's master, he has to have that heart-reading skill or whatever it is that he calls it. And it's definitely at a much higher level than Kajima too, so it's no wonder he's avoiding all of my moves so perfectly."

He clenched his fists. "Shit, if I want to get out of here alive and hopefully destroy that tank, then I don't have much of a choice at all…. Oh well," he thought.

Souichiro then spread his feet apart a bit while also raising his arms out to his sides. Focusing hard, the true warrior felt his own Ki begin to spike. While it was still just as dark and almost malevolent as it was before, something began to change about, the now visible Ki becoming pitch black in color with a mix of dark purple and blue thrown into the mix. It began to feel even darker than before, more violent. Yet at the same time, something about his growing Ki felt almost calm, collected.

Souichiro watched as for the first time, Saiga seemed visibly surprised, his eyebrows raised. "That technique…." Saiga muttered just loud enough for Souichiro's heightened hearing to pick up.

Then, taking a deep breath, Souichiro's Ki skyrocketed suddenly, shaking the entire building and causing parts of the hallway around him and Saiga to start falling apart.

Then Souichiro fully activated his technique, spinning his arms about in a pattern akin to the ancient martial arts symbol, declaring in a loud voice the name of the technique.

"Seidou Goui!"

* * *

Alrighty, as you can see, this chapter is just a bit shorter than previous ones. This is due to me being able to break up the action into parts as to avoid one huge overdose of it in just one chapter. Hope you guys understand.

Now then….

**In case you didn't read the AN at the top, please at least read where it's labeled 'IMPORTANT' at the top as to see what's going with this fic and what will happen next!**

Ok, just felt like stating that as a just-in-case thing.

Other than that, really not much else to say as I've already said everything that I felt needed to be said in the top AN.

So, I hope you all enjoyed this brief chapter and do be sure to review!


	31. Chapter 31

It is amazingly much to my surprise that this semester actually isn't going to be too bad, after all! And if that's not enough, progress on my side project is also going faster than expected, so there is a chance of me updating on a regular basis after all. Still, there are no guarantees; I have an essay or two to get working on a few days from now.

Now, as I mentioned in the last chapter's AN, this fic is reaching its conclusion. I also said that I was unsure as to how many more chapters were left until this fic is finally completed, but now things are a bit different.

Including this chapter, I would say there are about 3 or 4 chapters left and then that is it. However, do keep in mind that this is still a bit of 'possibly more, possibly less' sort of case as it ultimately depends on how much content I want to stuff in each chapter. So this number could potentially be prone to change. But I'm sure that the 3-4 number is accurate.

Well, not much else to say other than that, so now here it is. Hope you enjoy.

Chapter 31

The One Shadow could only blink in dull surprise, seemingly ignorant to how the room they were in was practically falling to pieces.

"I see. So Kensei did teach you that technique after all," he calmly stated, brushing a bit of rubble that got on his jacket.

Souichiro, now surrounded with pitch black Ki with hints of dark blue and purple, didn't answer. Instead, he chose to attack.

The true warrior all but disappeared from sight of Saiga. The One Shadow, immediately sensing danger, jumped back in time to avoid Souichiro's attack from above. The punch ended up wiping out the entire floor beneath them.

Both fell to the floor below. Souichiro's hair strands then shot out at Saiga and wrapped themselves around his arms. Then with just a thought, Souichiro brought Saiga closer to him and threw a punch, growing spikes on his knuckles to do extra damage. However, Saiga planted his feet on Souichiro's chest and kicked off of him in time to avoid the attack in addition to knocking Souichiro down.

The true warrior yelled out in shock as he slammed into the floor below hard enough to nearly go through it, but he rolled and stood up in time to see Saiga land calmly just several yards ahead of him.

Without a word being uttered, Saiga took off his jacket and flung it to the side without a care.

Taking this as a sign that Saiga was beginning to take things a bit more seriously now, Souichrio pointed a finger at Saiga and then concentrated Ki into it.

Said Ki shot out like a slow laser at the leader of Yami and while it was fast in its own right, it was far too slow for it to hit, shown as Saiga side stepped the attack before running forward.

Souichiro inwardly swore. This was exactly why he didn't use that ability often; it was sometimes too slow to hits moving targets. But he shrugged off this failure quickly enough and proceeded to nearly bury his feet into the floor before kneeling a bit, placing both hands on the floor as well.

A torrent of Ki began to concentrate in his legs while electricity began to surround him, especially his fists. He shot forth like a bullet at the incoming Saiga, letting out a battle cry as he thrust out one fist.

For what appeared to be the first time in this fight, it looked as though he may have finally caught Saiga off guard, Souichiro closing the distance between the two of them much faster than Saiga was. His fist was but mere inches away from Saiga's face now. "Take this!"

However, Saiga, with nary a grunt, slowed and spun on the spot, moving right past Souichiro, who had been moving in a perfectly straight line. The attack missed. Saiga then kicked Souichiro right in his back as the latter shot past the former.

Souichiro was knocked right off his feet and went flying, smashing right into a wall face first. "Gah!" he cried out, but thanks to the regenerative effects of some of his red feather abilities, any damage he may have suffered was quickly healed, though it still stung.

The true warrior then heard Saiga approaching once more and was barely able to duck under a powerful punch that had been aimed at his head. Unfortunately, he was unable to sense in time the other arm reaching out and grabbing him by the collar of his shirt. Before he could tell what happened, he was sailing upwards at an angle.

Right before he could hit a ceiling though, the true warrior spun around in mid flight and planted his feet on said ceiling and kicked off of it, launching himself right back at his opponent.

Rapidly approaching, he threw a punch, but Saiga parried it with his left arm. Souichiro followed it up with the nearest hair strand moving to attack his enemy's face. Saiga just narrowly seemed to avoid it before moving away.

Souichiro once again had to roll upon making ground contact and as he stood, his eyes widened slightly and a small, triumphant smirk appeared on his face.

On the left side of Saiga's face was the beginning of a very small bruise and above it a few singed hairs. It looks like the electric punch from earlier had connected just a bit after all. And on Saiga's right cheek, a small cut could been bleeding slightly from his hair strand just now.

"I…. I actually hurt him…." Souichiro thought. "Then his little empathy skill is either not a hundred percent accurate or I'm actually fast enough for him to not completely avoid me. I can probably win this!"

Saiga dashed forward while Souichiro was lost in thought and punched him in the face.

The true warrior sputtered out in sudden pain, his head nearly snapping back from the force, but he quickly brought it forward and shot out a massive fireball, this one a mixture of the same colors that made up his Ki right now.

Saiga leapt high into the air and managed to avoid it, though it looked as though it clipped part of his stylish shoes at any rate.

Souichiro jumped right at him and this time kicked instead of punch. Saiga blocked the attack with his arm right before it made contact with his face, only to have to move his head away as spikes literally tore right through Souichiro's shoe.

Saiga then attempted to knee Souichiro, but the true warrior brought up a hand and stopped the knee strike, though he found his arm nearly getting dislocated from the effort; Saiga's attack was impossibly strong. "Shit, just how strong is this guy?!" he thought.

Both disengaged from their mid air positions and returned to the floor. As soon as Souichiro landed, he decided to use a technique he hadn't used in a long while. The Ryukei Qigong Tashinkō technique.

Rearing back his right fist, the true warrior quickly gathered an immense amount of Ki and then thrust his fist forward, activating the powerful move as a beam of pure blue Ki shot out, in great contrast to his dark Ki.

Unlike the generic Ki beam he shot before, this one was fast and just as powerful. Saiga was actually unable to dodge in time so the One Shadow had no choice but to raise both arms to defend against the attack.

The attack connected and instantly an explosion rung out as a result, blowing away the entire area behind Saiga and creating a massive dust cloud that obscured even Souichiro's eyesight.

"Did that finally do him in?" he thought as he cautiously took a few steps forward a few seconds later.

"Hm." Souichiro froze at the sound.

The dust cleared up a bit a moment later and Saiga stepped forward. His waistcoat has now seen a few better days and the dress shirt he had in addition to the tassel worn around his neck were in bad shape, showing off a bit of his extremely muscular and well built chest. Parts of his sleeves were gone too, revealing what laid underneath.

"A-Armguards…?" Souichiro muttered as he took a look at how Saiga's arms were indeed wearing magnificently well crafted gauntlets.

Saiga stepped forward once more. "That was an impressive technique," he stated, "I have encountered many different martial arts and other things during my travels, but I cannot say I recognize that one. It would seem that there is more to you than meets the eye."

The One Shadow proceeded to wipe some of the dust on him off. Then without any indication or warning, he shot forward at Souichiro, catching the stupified teen naturally by surprise. Souichiro hardly had time to guard before Saiga punched him hard in the stomach.

Souichiro doubled over, but forced himself to remain standing. Cursing his lack of creativity in regards to his still numerous red feather abilities, all he could do in return was try and kick him.

Saiga merely took a step back to remain uninjured. Souichiro covered the short distance with just a few quick steps before throwing the nastiest haymaker he could muster, but Saiga caught it and spun, flinging Souichiro like a particularly light sack of potatoes.

The true warrior smashed into the floor and groaned in pain, though it was cut short when he felt his increased Ki begin to slowly diminish, in two different ways too from the feel of it. "Damn it. Looks like fighting this fucker is too much for me to sustain the technique," he thought, "but why does it feel like my Ki is draining even more….?"

Rolling over onto his stomach, Souichiro slowly looked up to see Saiga staring up, an almost thoughtful expression on the man's face. "I see… so it's almost done…." Souichiro heard Saiga mutter.

Then Saiga looked at him. Souichiro, grimacing, slowly began to get back up as Saiga now stared at him. "Well, thanks for waiting f-," he began only to stop when Saiga suddenly jumped.

The true warrior watched, confused to say the least, as Saiga had leapt to the floor above them, landing on a piece of the floor that was miraculously intact enough for a few people to walk on.

Souichiro growled, now feeling as though Saiga was doing something to toy with him in some other way. He leapt after the Yami leader.

Saiga, who had waited in place upon landing, now moved to avoid Souichiro as he threw a punch at him. Saiga sidestepped another wild punch as Souichiro landed. Another punch followed that one and Saiga simply parried it. "The Seidou Goui technique has finally ended, I see," he stated in his ever calm voice. "And your attacks are getting sloppy now. Are you perhaps too tired to continue this?" he questioned.

"Up yours," Souichiro growled as he kept on wildly throwing punches, no longer bothering with his red feather abilities in part due to his anger at all of this and also in part due to the fact that they have been pretty much useless for the most part against Saiga.

Despite his angry state of mind, Souichiro did find it odd how his wild attacks were forcing Saiga back and back, causing him to have to keep going forward to continue his failing assault.

One final punch tossed at Saiga's chest was avoided by the man back flipping into the air and crossing a short distance of ten feet as there was not much room to really maneuver in.

Souichiro was about to try and lunge at him, but was given paused for a brief second when he felt his Ki decline a bit more and literally felt his physical abilities decrease a bit. Even his long white hair was beginning to look just a bit shorter now. "What the hell is going on?" he mentally questioned.

He halfway considered just dropping the fight right here and now and just getting out of this building, but the thought of Saiga giving chase to finally kill him kept him from doing so as he knew letting his guard down anymore than he already was would be a suicidal idea. And he still had to make sure that Sohaku wouldn't be in the picture too, so retreat was simply not an option, however much he may have wanted it to be.

So he went after Saiga still, who had waited for him before moving again, this time almost disappearing from sight. "Shit, the further we go, the more of the floor there turns out to remain. So he's gonna have plenty of room to use against me," Souichiro thought as he ran as fast as he could after Saiga.

Turning a barely intact corner, Souichiro nearly skidded to a stop when he realized that it was leading to where Sohaku was at. He watched as Saiga moved towards this room. "Shit! I can't let him wake that shitty dad of mine up!" he thought and put on a burst of speed that was so great, it nearly destroyed the corner.

He shot a fireball right at the open door to the room as Saiga entered it, hoping it would hit him by chance, but no such luck; Saiga avoided it by immediately moving to the right upon entering the room.

Rather than go through the opening, Souichiro just sped ahead and smashed right through the wall directly to the right of the room entrance, where Saiga had been. However, Saiga had apparently moved farther to the right than anticipated as he missed him by nearly a foot or two and so he got a powerful elbow to his exposed back for his miscalculation.

Crashing to the ground, Souichiro rolled forth due to momentum. Before he could try to force himself to a stop, he received a rib breaking kick to his torso that nearly knocked him into the air. "Gah!" he cried out, coughing up some blood as he went flying and smashed into a table not far from Sohaku's incubation tank.

Saiga began to almost casually walk towards the downed Souichiro, even as the latter slowly but increasingly surely began to force himself up from the broken wreck. But then, Souichiro seemed to stumble a bit once he was half way up as he felt his Ki and own strength begin to wane more than earlier. "What…. is….?" He thought.

"It's a rather discomforting feeling, I take it," Saiga suddenly said. Souichiro immediately glared at him.

"You. What did you do to me?!" he yelled, knowing that the One Shadow must have done something to him.

"It's not me that is doing anything. Rather, it is the interesting contraption you didn't appear to notice right next to the tank," Saiga replied. He even went as far as to nod in its direction.

Whipping around violently, Souichiro spotted that to the left of the incubation tank was some strange machinery that he has never before seen. But what immediately got his attention was that he could sense a massive amount of Ki in it. More specifically, his Ki, Susano-o's Ki. And the machine appeared to be connected directly to Sohaku's tank.

Souichiro quickly turned back around to face Saiga, shock and confusion all but seared onto his face. Though he didn't say anything, it was clear that he wanted to know what it was.

Saiga didn't seem to mind complying with this unvoiced demand. "It is a machine especially built to lock onto you and slowly siphon off your Ki and transfer it to your father," he began, slowing his walking pace. "The cellular connection that the two of you share via your right eye – or rather, Sohaku's right eye – is what allows it to work so well. And now that you are so close, it will only be just several moments longer before you truly begin to return to normal."

Souichiro's eyes widened. His fists were clenched tightly to the point of violently shaking as the full implications of this hit him. If what Saiga was saying was really true and accurate, then he would have at best maybe ten minutes or so before he was no longer the true warrior and Sohaku would become Susano-o. He couldn't let that happen.

"Thanks for telling me, asshole!" Souichiro then spun around and focused his hair strands to extend and sharpen into blades. He all but flicked them like whips at the siphon.

But before they could get even within five feet of it, Saiga blurred into existence before the machine and in yet another impressive showing of speed, snatched the hair strands out of the air in mid-attack and pulled hard. Souichiro could only yell out in shock and pain as he went flying forward and smashed into the floor right before Saiga.

He rolled yet again and ended up bashing his head against the siphon, though not nearly hard enough to dent it; whatever material it was made out of, it was definitely high quality.

Saiga reached down and grabbed Souichiro by the top of his head. "Did you really think it would be that easy?" he questioned.

Souichiro glared at him as best as he could, weakly smacking the siphon with his right palm. "Hey, you never know until you try," he shot back with as much rage as he could muster in his pained state. He could feel the Ki flowing out of him much faster since he was so close to the machine.

The One Shadow, with barely a grunt, flung Souichiro away from the machine so fast that the true warrior was little more than a blur as he sailed across the room and crashed into the wall and nearly through it. Saiga began to move away from the machine, not noticing a small hiss coming from a strange mark that was now on it. Oddly enough, it was in the same spot where Souichiro had smacked his palm.

"If you have anything else planned, then by all means, attempt to execute them. It won't matter. Once you are dead, all of your Ki will be drained from your corpse and fed to Sohaku. Assuming you're not drained entirely by the siphon before that you die." Saiga's voice, for the first time since he and Souichiro spoke, sounded less than calm now. It sounded angry, but it was contained. And it sounded cold, calculating. Saiga was now beginning to take things just a bit more seriously than he was just moments ago.

Souichiro coughed as he removed himself painfully from the wall, pieces of it falling to the floor as he did so. "Come on!" he said, taking up a fighting stance.

Before he could even think anything else, Saiga was right up in his face, his fist ready to punch him in the gut. However, Souichiro was able to respond instinctively and while he was losing power, he was still just fast enough to side step the blow. As he did so, he couldn't help but shiver as he could literally feel the power emanating from the passing fist. If it had connected, it probably would have gone all the way through his torso.

Jumping past Saiga, Souichiro grew spikes on both fists and went for the old fashioned one-two punch, but Saiga saw the attack coming a mile away and swiftly avoided it, ducking under each fist as they tried to hit him in the face.

He retaliated with a powerful kick, but Souichiro managed to extend his hair strands around him and harden it to steel. So when the kick connected, it didn't actually hit him. Nonetheless, it was terrifyingly strong and so he was propelled to the side because of it, his feet skidding and burrowing into the floor as he did his best to keep himself from being toppled.

Saiga dashed right after him, but had to slow himself as Souichiro unraveled his hardened hair and sent it whipping at Saiga in a circular motion. Saiga spun around one strand, only to come to a stop and immediately side step as another hair strand chose that second to go flying in a straight line towards, intent on stabbing him in the chest.

The true warrior then chose that moment to close the distance between them and throw a low kick at Saiga's legs, but the tall man guarded against it easily enough and slammed a palm into Souichiro's stomach.

Souichiro's eyes went wide and he lost all air and ended up spitting up blood and possibly more as he went skidding back. Nearly doubling over now, he was unable to do anything against the punch that followed.

Saiga's fist slammed hard into the side of Souichiro's head and knocked him over like a pin at a bowling alley, bouncing across the floor ungracefully. But at one point during his tumble, Souichiro was able to plant his hands on the floor and use his now upside down position to actually right himself.

As soon as he did so, he spat out yet another large fireball, followed by an even large one right after that. One was aimed high while the other was aimed low.

Saiga found himself having to back up quickly, even going as far as to smash through a wall to avoid the fireballs as both were aimed just a bit to his left and right. The attacks just barely missed him as they went through the wall too, the heat of them slightly singing his clothes.

He proceeded to kick at Souichiro a chunk of the wall that was near his left foot. Souichiro backhanded it into tiny pieces right before it could hit him and he charged forward as Saiga jumped through the hole and straight at him.

He jumped into the air too and spun, sailing just a bit over Saiga before throwing a punch at him. Saiga caught the fist and spun too, tossing Souichiro at the floor. The true warrior was able to flip around and land properly before impact, though the momentum nearly made the spot under him collapse in on itself.

Saiga landed right before him and threw a punch, and it connected painfully with Souichiro's face, nearly shattering the teen's jaw. It was only thanks to his regenerative abilities that it was able to start healing up after the hit, though the attack still nearly knocked him out.

Souichiro staggered from the hit, dazed. Saiga took advantage of his by grabbing him by his arm and performing a jujitsu toss, throwing Souichiro yet again through the air.

Souichiro just so happened to land unceremoniously just a few yards away from the very front of Sohaku's tank.

Groaning, Souichiro rolled over onto his stomach before proceeding to try and stand. As he did so, he felt his Ki and strength begin to ebb away again. His hair begin to slowly revert back to the length it was before he ever turned into Susano-o, his now short spikey hair falling into place. He also felt something in his right eye change. If he had to guess, it was most likely returning to normal, just like his left eye had done after Maya's partial purification that time.

"It would seem the process is almost complete," Saiga coldly stated as he walked towards Souichiro.

Despite the desperate situation, Souichiro couldn't help but grin and even start to chuckle.

Saiga, a little surprised by this sudden action, actually paused in his steps. "What's so funny, boy?"

Souichiro slowly turned around to face him. "Ah, nothing much." He smirked at Saiga despite the exhaustion that was now beginning to hit him hard after all that has happened today. "While I may not really be Susano-o anymore, neither will my shitty pop be," he said.

"What?" Saiga muttered, not comprehending what Souichiro was saying. But then a hissing noise caught his attention and he swiftly turned his gaze from the no longer true warrior to the siphon. Where a small, dimly glowing circle could be seen, hissing.

Before he could even react to this surprise, Souichiro snapped his fingers. The circle exploded with the force of several grenades.

Saiga's eyes widened right before he covered them with his right arm as blown pieces of the machine and more went flying all around. "What?!" he whispered harshly, for the first time his composure truly gone.

Souichiro's chuckle turned into laughter. "I don't really use that ability since it always takes some time before I could activate it, but damn. Who would have thought such an impractical red feather ability like that would have worked?"

He was now flat out grinning in triumph as he no longer felt the drain on his Ki. Though he had lost a majority of the Susano-o power, he still retained quite a bit of the Ki, still making him stronger than he would be normally. Though it still wouldn't be enough to compete with Saiga at all, he had his hopes that he could potentially escape, now that the main threat of Sohaku becoming Susano-o was neutralized.

Saiga slowly looked back at Souichiro, his eyes slightly wide. Then they narrowed. "That…. was actually quite clever. I knew that you as Susano-o had many abilities, but I never would have expected you to use one that was time delayed," he said, trying to sound calm, but ended up sounding positively cold. He took a step forward. "Still, it would seem that it was enough. And you destroyed more than just the siphon."

Souichiro, too caught up in the moment to really digest the meaning behind that last sentence, just snorted. "Oh yeah? What else went down right now, aside from this room now needing a serious clean up?"

A small, but unnerving smile slowly appeared on Saiga's face. "For one thing, Sohaku didn't need to receive all of your Ki as Susano-o to awaken."

As soon as he said that, Souichiro's grin disappeared and he froze as he began to hear a bit of movement coming from within the tank.

"For another thing," Saiga continued, "there were two parts to the machinery you just destroyed. One was the siphon." A small hiss reverberated throughout the room, it coming from the front of the tank. "The other part of the machine was the locking mechanism to the tank."

Another dull hiss was heard as the front to the tank began to lift open.

Souichiro could only remain frozen for a moment longer before slowly turning around at the sound of footsteps from behind him. "Y-You….."

"Good to see you again, my son," Sohaku coldly said as he walked out of the tank and onto the floor before him. "It has been a while since we last spoke…."

* * *

As tempted as I am to do a dramatic drum roll right now, I'll refrain from doing so. As with the last chapter, this one was just a bit shorter than the usual due to the short (but still very much time consuming to write) amount of action I have left with this before moving onto the last short/big thing before finally ending this fic.

That, and I have an essay or two to do within the coming few weeks and I'm going to need all the time I can manage to make it good. And my time spent on the essay will also in turn give me some time to plan out the smaller details in the next chapter.

So, as always, hope you enjoyed it!

Until the next chapter, people!

Rialga.

P.S. Thank you all for all the views and favorites that this fic has been getting! I couldn't have gotten this far without you!


	32. Chapter 32

Finally done with my essay! Man, for something so simple and short, it sure took me some time to finally work up the motivation to do it…. not to mention my two tests as well…. Sigh….

My semester aside, things in life are going pretty good as you can tell by the fact that this chapter is actually out sooner than I had expected it to be.

That said, this is it guys! The final chapter! Let me thank you all in advance for having stuck with me this far in reading this fic!

As for when the second season of this will be started, well, I can't say for certain as I do plan to take about a month (subject to change) off from writing fanfics to figure which of more than a dozen fic ideas I want to follow through on in addition to figuring out how best to start it and all that. And if/when I get that next fic done, I'm not sure if I should do another fanfic after that or do the sequel to this, but I'll cross that bridge whenever I get there.

So without any further ado, here we are!

Final Chapter

Souichiro took a step back in fear and caution as he watched the man he grudgingly admits is his father walk out of the tank, all but nude save for some form fitting dark blue shorts that seemed almost synthetic in nature due to how dry it seemed right now.

The former true warrior broke out in a cold sweat as he assessed Sohaku, who looked just as he did before, a little over six feet in height and with a cold yet regal face, his white hair currently wet and messy from just getting out of the tank. His eyes bore straight into Souichiro. And it was these eyes that were currently making shivers run down his spine, for they were no longer the dark grey they were before and were now just like Souichiro's eyes had once been as Susano-o, but rather than being almost gold in color, his unnatural irises were a bright glowing red that just spoke of inhumanity.

Sohaku's physique appeared just as lean as it was before, but it no longer seemed lanky and instead appeared healthier and considerablly more athletic, with some quite noticeable muscle tone. Souichiro reasoned it was most likely a result of all the unnatural Ki Sohaku had absorbed during his time in the tank or that it was due to whatever form of science that had been used to create his new body.

But it was really Sohaku's Ki that had him so on edge. Though he really had no idea as to how strong Sohaku had been back when the two of them first met – though ever since Sohaku had been inside his mind, he had somehow taken to getting a better feel for his power and found him to once be master class – he could tell now that he was above and beyond what he was before; Sohaku's Ki was dwarfed what Saiga had shown thus far and was far darker and simply more malevolent than he was before. From what he's heard of other prominent martial artists since joining YOMI, Souichiro figured that only someone of Furinji Hayato's caliber could defeat Sohaku. And that was probably being too optimistic as Sohaku had a number of red feather abilities at his disposal.

It was at this thought that Souichiro, to the surprise of both Sohaku and Saiga, smirked. "What?" Sohaku questioned as he continued to slowly walk before coming to a stop, his eyes boring into Souichiro's own.

"Heh." Souichiro could nearly feel a grin appearing on his face right now. "You may be a shit ton more powerful than before, but I can somehow tell…. Because of when the captain tried to purify me and right now with that machine destroyed, you didn't get all of the red feather abilities I had gained."

If this angered Sohaku in anyway, the ancient man didn't show it. Souichiro pressed on anyway. "And I can also tell," he started as he shifted his stance a bit. "That out of the who know how many abilities lost to both of us, my Dragon Fist and that Inue bitch's Dragon's Roar is among that number. So if there are somehow any red feathers left out there, you won't be getting their abilities."

Sohaku and Saiga simply remained motionless. "Yes," Sohaku said. "That is true, however grudgingly I may admit it," he growled. He looked at Saiga at that moment and blinked in surprise, as though seeing him for the first time. "Saiga…." He muttered.

"Sohaku." Saiga nodded in acknowledgement. "Good to see you again, I suppose."

Sohaku just stared at him. As he did so, Souichiro subtly shifted his stance a bit more, getting ready to bolt. The only thing that kept him from immediately doing so was the fact that both men were leagues beyond him in power and skill. He can't be hasty just yet.

"I suppose I can say the same thing," Sohaku conceded a moment later, now understanding just how his revival had come to be. It had been particularly frustrating to have been locked out of the loop within Souichiro's mind, at least until he had been whisked away into his current body.

He focused his attention back on Souichiro. "Now back to you." His voice sounded even colder than it did before. His already beyond grand master level Ki began to increase even more, and within seconds, Souichiro found himself focusing all of his willpower to just keep from passing out in sheer fear, though he was sweating more than before and was shaking considerably too.

"Back to me," Souichiro said as bravely as he could. "Whatcha you gonna do, you lousy fuck? Kill me now that you're as close as you can get to being a god?" he taunted, flaring his own Ki to show that while he was nowhere near as strong he had been just several moments ago, he was still stronger than he would be in his normal form. His Ki still very much showed traces of the Susano-o Ki and he could still feel that he had access to a number of red feather abilities.

Sohaku bristled slightly. "Indeed. As you say, there is no longer any use for you as far as I am concerned. And given your current state, I'd say that Saiga and his cohorts no longer have a use for you either." He started to walk towards Souichiro, who in turn began to start stepping back, while also making sure to avoid moving towards Saiga. "And so, it would be best to finally kill you here and now."

Before Souichiro could even think of a retort, he felt his danger sense going off like crazy and he made to move. He wasn't fast enough as suddenly a piece of the floor between him and Sohaku rose, shifted and shot out at him, piercing him right through the stomach.

He could only gasp in pain as he felt something stab right through him and send him staggering back wildly. As he did so, he could only clench at the hole in his gut, which went all the way through his torso and out his back. The only good thing was that he still retained his regenerative abilities to an extent as he saw the wound slowly begin to close. But blood was pouring out of his mouth and the pain was greater than anything Saiga had inflicted upon him in their fight just now, indicating to him once and for all that Sohaku was by far the greatest danger right now.

Souichiro could only watch, still gasping in pain, as the long spike crumbled apart as Sohaku walked past it, Saiga now moving into pace alongside the new true warrior.

"Still healing even after that…. as always, red feather abilities impress me," Saiga commented as he calmly walked alongside Sohaku.

"I prefer to think of it as troublesome in this case. No matter…." he replied.

Before Souichiro could react again, he felt himself slowly levitating into the air. "Fuck!" he thought as he struggled against it, but to no avail. Then Sohaku pointed at him and quickly motioned his finger to the floor and Souichiro slammed right into like a missile, shaking the entire floor and breaking his nose in the process. Blood spilled out all over the place as his voice could be heard, full of pain. It took him nearly a minute for his nose to heal from its completely shattered state and stand up.

As he did so, Sohaku and Saiga did not attack him. And he was certain he knew why; they – well, Sohaku, at least – were playing with him, like some kind of toy. "You miserable sons of bitches…." He thought, said thought being laced with rage and pure hatred as he currently found himself just not having the energy to voice his words.

"You will not be going easily, boy," Sohaku said as he snapped his fingers and Souichiro found himself being slammed into the floor again with terrifying force.

Souichiro grunted and quickly tried to get up. As he did so, he placed both hands on the floor to push himself up. A minute amount of Ki was generated and transferred through his hands to the floor as he did this and stood.

He took a few steps forward. "I-Is that the best you got?" he said as stubbornly as he could. But he was tired, his breath getting very ragged and he hurt all over now.

Sohaku didn't reply to this with words, but instead with action. He walked towards Souichiro in a cold and steady gate while Saiga stayed behind. Then when he was just a few feet away from Souichiro, he backhanded him.

A crack was heard as Souichiro's neck nearly broke as his head went swiveling to the side and he was sent flying like a bullet towards some other large piece of machinery, smashing right through it with such force that it might as well have been paper.

While he was still in pain and very disoriented from the blow, Sohaku all but literally just teleported right in front of him and grabbed him by the neck and lifted him up. Souichiro immediately found his windpipe being slowly and mercilessly crushed under Sohaku's now absolute grip, but still did a valiant effort of breaking out of it, in the form of kicking his father in the chest and face with all the strength he could muster. Sohaku wasn't even remotely fazed by the attacks. His hair didn't even end up more out of place than it already was.

"Is this all the power you can now muster? Pathetic. You have always been pathetic, thinking that you can go against your fate," Sohaku now taunted without raising his voice, his ominous glowing red eyes focused entirely on Souichiro.

"F-Fuck….. off….." Souichiro muttered.

Sohaku's right eyebrow twitched and his grip tightened. "Sohaku," Saiga then said, getting the ancient man's attention. "While I can understand that you and he do not get along, this is really no time to dawdle about. There is much to be done now that you have finally achieved your goal."

Sohaku gazed at him for a brief moment before looking back at Souichiro. "Perhaps. I take it your group – Yami, if I recall correctly – is going well?"

Saiga nodded. "Yes. The Eternal Setting Sun quickly approaches now."

"I see. Very well then," Sohaku said as he then dropped Souichiro. Just as he fell to his knees on the floor, Sohaku then very casually kicked him right in the chest. Souichiro, for a brief instant, thought he just had a massive hole blown right through him; it was beyond painful as his ribs and sternum shattered as he went skidding across the floor, destroying it along the way.

He began to gasp and cough violently, blood coming out of his mouth in large quantities than before even as his bones began to restore themselves.

Sohaku began to walk towards him again, his Ki flaring just a bit to indicate that he was readying a red feather ability. "I tire of you now, boy. Begone," he said as he raised his hand towards Souichiro.

Souichiro just glared defiantly at him. "Oh, I'll be gone, all right…."

Then the spot where he had placed his hands before suddenly exploded. "What?!" Sohaku cried out in surprise as he whirled around in time to see an explosion go off that made Saiga move back to avoid. However, that wasn't all as an enormous dust cloud was generated, filling the entire room. It was to the point where not even Sohaku, with his newly heightened senses, could see through the cloud immediately.

The sound of rubble being moved followed by running and a few smashes then rang out in rapid succession from behind Sohaku while he and Saiga were just a bit disoriented by the explosion and resulting dust cloud.

"Hmph!" Sohaku raised his hand skyward and very quickly the dust cloud seemed to spin about, enclosing itself around him before dispersing into nothingness. In doing so, he could now see that he and Saiga were covered a bit in dust, but were otherwise unharmed. This was to be expected given how durable both of them were. However, there was one thing in particular that Sohaku took note of.

Souichiro was gone.

"I see," Saiga commented as he began to dust himself off. "He used that strange red feather ability from before, but this time it was meant to merely stun rather than destroy." He then looked at Sohaku. "While the two of us could easily catch him, he is still fast enough for him to have already covered quite the distance by now and hide his trail a bit. I doubt we'll find him easily if we pursue."

Sohaku looked towards the wall nearest to where Souichiro had been and saw that there were holes leading all the way to the outside of the building. "As much as I dislike to admit it, yes, that sounds about accurate." A shrug. "Oh well, he no longer matters. He can always be disposed of at a future time."

He now turned his attention to Saiga. "Now then, Saiga, tell me; what has been happening since we last met…."

A considerable distance away from the building, Souichiro swore under his breath as he traversed through the thick forest that seemed to surround the building. "Fuck…" he muttered. "Damn it all…. Shit…."

He kept on running, ignoring the pain as best as he could. Rest could come later. Right now, he had to get out of here.

At Ryozanpaku, Masataka was actually in the middle of a spar with Kenichi. The reason behind this was that it had been time for Kenichi to train again and Akisame had wanted to see how the Ryozanpaku disciple would fair against such a high level expert like Masataka, especially given his fighting style.

As Akisame – and Miu, who also watched from the sidelines – expected, things were not exactly going well for Kenichi.

"Ha!" the Ryozanpaku disciple cried out as he went for his Strongest Combo 2. But each hit was easily parried by Masataka.

With a bit of a deep breath, as soon as the last strike was parried, Masataka simply rushed forth before Kenichi could do anything more and smashed his open palm into Kenichi's stomach. Despite his durable gi, the disciple was still sent skidding back.

"Wah!" He nearly fell to his knees from the simple yet powerful strike, but he quickly righted himself and shifted into a Muay Thai stance. With that done, he began to slowly inch towards his sparring partner, cautious as he did so.

Masataka simply stayed where he was and kept his defense up. He was honestly surprise though; the spar was just suggested as an offhand thing, but nonetheless he agreed to it to see just how strong Kenichi really was. And so far, he was a bit impressed as he now got to see what he was really capable of compared to their brief fight from all that time ago. What especially impressed him were the original moves he had come up with, especially the Mubiyoshi punch, which had been tried earlier only to fail.

Nonetheless, he felt that Kenichi still had quite a ways to go before he could fight the disciple seriously.

Then Kenichi closed the distance between them finally and went for a standard Ti Lan strike. Before the low kick could get particularly far though, Masataka took exactly one step forward and planted his right leg right behind Kenichi's attacking left one. With a simple push back of his right leg, he forced Kenichi's leg up into the air and seriously unbalancing the teen.

"Whoa!" Kenichi found himself quickly trying to stop his attack and regain his balance, but once again he failed as Masataka got up close and struck him in the chest with his hand. The left one. He didn't want to hit Kenichi with his mechanical right one; that might have been too painful.

Kenichi gasped as the air was knocked right out of him and he went flying back, landing hard on the floor. "Guh."

Akisame and Miu watched this all happen, the former stroking his moustache while the latter simply looked a little worried for Kenichi. Though the spar had been relatively short, going on now for about ten minutes, Kenichi was getting roughed up a bit due to Masataka's brief yet powerful strikes.

"I think that's enough for now," Akisame said as Kenichi began to get back on his feet.

With that said, Masataka smiled and walked towards Kenichi. "You alright, Kenichi-san?" he asked.

Kenichi smiled a bit tiredly. "Y-Yeah." As he fully stood up, he couldn't prevent himself for rubbing his chest in a bit of pain. "But wow," he began to mutter. "I knew you were strong, Masataka-san, but those attacks of yours hurt a bit."

His sparring partner looked a bit sheepish. "Sorry about that. I did my best to hold back."

Kenichi chuckled a bit. "Ah, don't worry. I've taken worse from Apachai." He shivered as he then recalled all of the times he did train with the gentle Thai giant.

Masataka shivered as well. "Yeah. I bet you have." During the few times he's come by Ryozanpaku, he's had a chance to see how Kenichi trained and to be frank with himself, it was actually rather scary. Especially when he saw Kenichi train with the aforementioned master. It amazed him every time Kenichi managed to survive a kick from Apachai.

Akisame chuckled as he approached the two. "It's not that bad, Kenichi-kun."

Both teens before him shivered at that, knowing that isn't true. "Still," Akisame began. "I have to say that while I have only heard of the Xinyi Luihe style, your skill in it is remarkable. I can see why you'd be considered a high level expert."

Masataka looked a little sheepish. "Coming from someone like you, that really means a lot, Akisame-san."

Akisame smirked and began to groom his moustache again. "Hmm, come to think of it, Kenichi-kun, you don't have much experience fighting against people who are specifically trained to counter so forcefully…." His eyes began to glow white. Kenichi shivered. "Maybe Masataka-kun can continue to spar with you on occasion…. And maybe test his skills against Shigure since he's an anti-weapons specialist…." Masataka shivered now.

Both of them began to laugh sheepishly and nervously. "Ha ha…. We'll think on that one…." Both muttered as they waved a hand in front of their faces nervously.

Miu looked just as worried for them too as she began to approach them, oddly quiet as she did so.

"Well, that aside," Akisame stated, now looking serious, "none of us can afford to be off guard. I've thought over what Bunshichi-san has told me while I patched him up in regards to his fight with Nagi-san and I have a feeling that whatever happens next won't be very pleasant."

And just like that, all three teens got serious as well. "Yeah. I definitely feel the same way," Masataka stated, recalling the bad feeling he had earlier. Even now, he still had that feeling, though the spar with Kenichi had helped him avoid dwelling on it too much.

But now that he thought of it, he felt that whatever bad thing was going to happen was just about to be a whole lot worse. He wasn't sure just how he could know this, but he knew he didn't need Aya's Dragon Eyes to know it.

And it was this that scared him most of all.

A few days pass by with nothing truly eventful happening that anyone could notice. And it was at this time that Makoto finally came home following a particularly rough practice she put herself through during her kendo club time just a bit ago. For reasons she couldn't quite fathom, she has really been putting her all and then some into her kendo training lately and so she's been sweating a lot more than usual.

"Better take a bath before dinner…." she muttered as she tiredly entered her home and called out to her parents to let them know she was home. She would have used the showers at the kendo club room to get rid of all the sweat, but she's never really felt comfortable doing so.

So in nearly record time, Makoto dropped her school bag and shinai off in her room before taking a rather long and relaxing warm bath before getting ready for dinner.

However, just as dinner was being prepared by her mother, Makoto and her parents were startled by a sudden banging at their front door. "W-Who is….?" Her father began from his spot at the dining room table. He was about to get up to answer it, but Makoto beat him to the punch.

"I-I'll get it," she said as she moved to answer the door. The banging at the door continued. "I'm coming, I'm coming…." she muttered, worried that whoever it was might knock the door down; those bangs sounded intimidatingly loud and furious.

But when she finally opened the door, any emotions she was currently feeling were tossed out the window and instead replaced with complete shock. "S-Souichiro-kun?!" she exclaimed.

Right there on her door step was none other than Souichiro, looking like something Hell spat out to her eyes, his clothes wrecked and the teen himself looking beyond exhausted and beaten.

"Hey, Makoto," Souichiro said wearily, too tired to even try to smile. He had traveled for the past few days just trying to find his way back to any form of civilization from where Yami's headquarters had been. Needless to say, it had not been easy as the forest he had been stuck in was vast and in his exhaustion at the time, he had made several missteps that made him stumble into large boulders or rivers and so on and so on.

And now all of the events that had happened had now fully and truly caught up to him. He began to sway around on the spot, shocking Makoto out of her stupor at seeing the drastic change in Souichiro's looks from the last time she saw him.

"S-Sorry Makoto… but I'll…. be… resting…. fo…." He fell forward onto Makoto, unconscious.

Makoto nearly collapsed herself under Souichiro's sudden fall on her and his now dead weight. "S-Souichiro-kun?!" she cried out as she tried to hold him up. "Souichiro-kun!"

Back at Yami's headquarters, a meeting was taking place. During the past few days, messages had been sent out to all members of the One Shadow Nine Fists and it had taken just a bit of time for them to finally get together.

In the conference room, which had somehow managed to avoid being damaged during Saiga's and Souichiro's battle, sat just a few of the Nine Fists, chief among them being Saiga, seated in his usual seat. There were three others there, that being Kensei, Agaard, and Hongou Akira, all of whom also sat in their own seats. In placement of the other empty seats were portable view screens with the images of the corresponding member. All of them were there naturally save for Diego Carlo and Alexander Gaidar, both of whom were imprisoned now in Big Lock.

As of these past several minutes, all of them were currently being brought up to speed on what has occurred. "Ha ha ha." Agaard appeared highly amused. "A god you say? How very interesting," he stated as he looked to the newest addition to the room.

For there was a new seat added to the place, one right next to Saiga's. In this seat sat Sohaku, dressed in a white business suit much like the ones he used to dress in before. His ominous red eyes calmly swept across the room, moving from one face of the Nine Fists to the next.

"Ka ka k aka! Please, a god?" Silcardo commented from the view screen in his seat as he munched on an apple. "Then what happened to that young boy then? Didn't you proclaim him a god when he was introduced to us?" he questioned.

"That may be true, yes, but as I had just explained, things have changed since then," Saiga calmly replied. "All that matters now is that we now have a new ally, one that will aid us in the time to come. I expect you all to welcome him into our ranks."

"Hmph." Silcardo didn't seem amused by all of this. "I still don't see why you went out of your just to revive this guy."

"Why he did what he did is irrelevant, you pathetic fool," Sohaku said, his expression almost looking bored.

"Ah?" A bit of shifting could be heard from Silcardo. "Me? A fool?"

At this, Sohaku began to make his Ki rise just a bit. His Ki at its usual level was already enough to actually set the Nine Fists there already on edge, though they hid it very well, but now it took a considerable amount of willpower to keep from reacting on instinct and attacking or defending.

Even the Nine Fists who could only interact right now via video seemed a bit unnerved by the slight display, the Ki shaking the entire building violently.

"Yes. That is exactly what I am saying, _child_." He emphasized that last word. For while Silcardo may be in the same age range as Kushinada Mikumo and Hayato, in comparison to Sohaku, who has lived for thousands of years, he was no more than a child or even an infant in the new Susano-o's eyes.

"Sohaku. Calm yourself. Now is not a time to be fighting amongst ourselves. For while we have gained a large asset in the form of yourself, we still can't deny that we have lost two of our members," Saiga spoke, seemingly unfazed by the Ki and building shaking.

"Hmph. You should be more weary of who you choose to ally yourself with; I feel that young Silcardo will try something later," Sohaku said, just quietly enough for only Saiga to hear. It wasn't that he didn't feel like saying it to Silcardo's face, it was just that he was already satisfied with having established that while he may be a new addition to their ranks, he was still very much above them all in experience and power and to also show that he has no problem acting out as he sees fit if needed.

He looked at Saiga out of the corner of his eyes, his Ki subsiding to its new normal levels. "Now then. What else is on the agenda?" he asked as he folded his arms across his chest.

"Yes, just what else is there?" Kensei spoke up, an amused grin on his face. Having been the only other person in on the creation of Sohaku's new body, the Sage Fist was most delighted to see him join them, even if things may potentially be hostile between him and certain members such as Silcardo.

Saiga shifted forward in his seat, eyes closed for a brief second before opening them. When he did, everyone could tell that something interesting was about to occur. Even Sohaku felt this way. "Let us discuss new allies, ones who I have intended to have join us for quite some time now for the sake of seeing the Eternal Setting Sun. The Hachiou Executioner Blade…."

Season 1 End

* * *

Yep. That's right. While it may have been a bit of a rather brief final chapter, I certainly ended it on quite a cliff hanger, huh? That way, come the beginning of the next season, there'll be plenty of things to be done: Souichiro's recovery and what path he'll take now, Masataka and Kenichi potentially training alongside one another in addition to both the Juken Club and Ryozanpaku soon finding out about Sohaku's existence and much, much more as you can tell by Saiga's final statement.

Things will be ramped up come season 2!

Thank you to all who have (sometimes relatively, other times not) recently read and favorite/followed this fic! It's thanks to you guys that I had the willpower to finish this fic! In particular, I'd like to thank **Tensa Zangetsu 17**, who has consistently been reviewing my chapters.

With that said, I truly and sincerely you all have enjoyed my fic and will look forward to season 2 whenever I get to it!

Until my next fic!

-Rialga


End file.
